anxiety EWT Flashcards
strength:there is research support
E:for example , in Johnson and Scotts experiment, it was revealed that participants were more likely to have a better recollection of a staged argument where the confederate carried a pen rather than a bloody knife.
E:these findings suggest that anxiety impairs the accuracy of eye witness testimony as the bloody knife presumable inducted greater fear and anxiety than the penned the high levels of anxiety impaired their memory. this is supported by the Yerkes-dorson law in which being in a high arousing state would impart performance of memory. additionally, this experiment provides support for the weapons focus effect because we would assume that the participant observing the confederate holding a bloody knife would experience greater anxiety and therefore focus their attention primarily on the knife and less attention to other details.
L:therefore, research findings provide support for the claim that anxiety does impair the accuracy of EWT.
limitation:lack of ecological validity
E: studying the effects of anxiety can prove challenging as research ethical rules put into places constrains researchers from placing participants in high anxiety situations. furthermore, most research relies on participants watching video footage of crime or staged crime(such as johnson and Scotts experiement)all
completed in a laboratoryenvironment.
E:it is challenging for these artificial tasks to capture the true nature of anxiety experienced by eyewintenss testimonies regarding Crime events. In a real life eyewitness event involving crime, the participant would experience strong emotions.a lack of this may be difficult to generalise laboratory findings to real life situations.
L:therefore, a limitation of research on eyewitness testimonies is the lack of ecological validity so we need to be cautious about comparing what research findings show about the effects of anxiety on EWT.
