M: Effect Of Anxiety On EWT Flashcards
What is anxiety?
Unpleasant emotional state
Fear something bad will happen
Physiological arousal (increased heart rate and shallow breathing)
Christianson and Hubinette (1993)
58 real victims of bank robbery
Those actually threatened were more accurate in their recall compared to onlookers
Anxiety positive effect on EWT accuracy
Johnson and Scott (1976)
Weapon Focus Effect
Pps. waiting room
Heard arguing
Man walking out holding either greasy pen of blooded letter opener
Pen- 45% correct recall of suspect
Letter opener- 33%
More anxiety reduces accuracy
Deffenbacher explains contrasting findings
Yerkes- Dodson law
Performance improves with increased arousal up to an optimum point and then declines with further increases