Anxiety Flashcards
What is anxiety?
A state of emotional and physical arousal
What is one approach to studying anxiety and EWT?
-look at the effect of the presence of a weapon which creates anxiety–leads to focus on weapon reducing a witness’s recall for other details of the event
Explain Johnson and Scott’s procedure
-did research on weapon focus effect
-p’s believed they were taking part in a lab study
-seated in a waiting room, p’s heard a casual conversation in the next room & then saw a man walk past with a pen & grease in hands (low anxiety)
-other p’s overheard heated argument, sound of breaking glass. A man walked out of the room holding a knife covered in blood (high anxiety)
Findings from Johnson & Scott’s procedure about recall
-participants had to pick out man from set of 50 photos
-49% who had seen the man carrying the pen were able to identify him
-33% in blood covered condition
anxiety=negative affect on recall
conclusions from Johnson & Scott’s procedure
-tunnel theory of memory argues that people have enhanced memory for central events.
-Weapon focus as a result of anxiety can have this effect
Explain Yuille & Cutshall procedure
-conducted a study of an actual shooting in a gun shop in Vancouver Canada
-shop owner shot a thief dead
-13 witnesses took part in study
-interviewed 4-5 months after incident
-compared with original police interviews at the time of shooting
-accuracy determined by the number of details reported in each account
-also asked to rate how stressed they had felt & any emotional problems they had after
What were Yuille & Cutshall’s findings and conclusions?
-witnesses were very accurate in their accounts, little change in the amount recalled after 5 months
-some details less accurate such a age/height/weight estimates
-participants that reported highest levels of stress were most accurate (88% compared to less stressed group 75%)
anxiety =positive affect
What contradictory findings are found by Yerkes & Dodson?
relationship between emotional arousal and performance looks like an ‘inverted-U’
What did Deffenbacher find?
-reviewed 21 studies of EWT found contradictory findings
-used Yerkes-Dodson law to explain
-we experience anxiety & physiological changes in our body (F or F)
lower levels of anxiety= lower levels of recall accuracy
higher levels of anxiety= high levels of recall
-optimum level of anxiety= maximum accuracy, any more =decline
Limitation of Johnson & Scott’s study
-may not have tested anxiety
-Pickel- reason p’s focused on weapon is because they were surprised rather than scared
-conducted and experiment using scissors, handgun, raw chicken, wallet as the hand-held items in hairdressing salon video
-EWT more poorer in high unusualness conditions (chicken& handgun)
Weapon focus effect due to unusualness rather than anxiety
What support is there for the negative effects of anxiety?
Valentine & Mesout- used HR to divide p’s into high & low anxiety groups
-Anxiety disrupted ability to recall details about actor in Dungeon’s Labyrinth
high level anxiety=negative effect
What support is there for the positive effects of anxiety?
researchers interviewed witness to bank robberies in Sweden
-some directly involved (workers) some indirectly (bystanders)
Direct victims were much more accurate (more anxious)
-confirm anxiety does not reduce recall accuracy
