EWT - Anxiety

Question 1

what is anxiety?

Answer 1

a state of emotional & physical arousal - worried thoughts, feelings of tension, increased HR & sweating

Question 2

how do people think anxiety effects EWTs?

Answer 2

• positively = arousal –> fight or flight –> alertness & improving memory for the event as they become more aware of cues
• negatively = physiological arousal –> prevents paying attention to important cues –> recall is worse

Question 3

explaining contradictory results about the effects of anxiety on EWT

Answer 3

YERKES DODSON LAW
- basically a bell curve - supposed to be an optimum level of anxiety

Question 4

EVALUATION - clue = we-

Answer 4

WEAPON FOCUS?
- LOFTUS = attention is drawn away from face to weapon - due to anxiety?
- PICKELL (1998) = surprise instead (raw chicken @ hairdressers)

Question 5

EVALUATION - clue = la-

Answer 5

LAB STUDIES
- lab & real life events show different findings
- DEFFENBACHER meta-analysis = lab studies show that anxiety causes reduced accuracy but that real life events were even less accurate

Question 6

EVALUATION - clue = inc-

Answer 6

INCONSISTENT FINDINGS
- too many factors = types of crimes, types of weapon
- violent crimes = more accurate than non-violent

Question 7

EVALUATION - clue = ind-

Answer 7

INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES
- sensitive people are more vulnerable to the effects of anxiety on accuracy

Question 8

EVALUATION - clue = ca-

Answer 8

THE CATASTROPHE MODEL
- if it’s less mentally challenging, it follows yerkes dodson law
- if more mentally challenging, performance suddenly drops

Question 9

study involving sweden

Answer 9

CHRISTIANSON & HUBINETTE (1993)
- 58 EWs of 22 real bank robberies interviewed sometime after
- some were customers (low anxiety) & some employees (high anxiety)
- in general, more than 75% accurate recall, but the witnesses who were most anxious had the best