Factors Affecting Accuracy of EWT - Anxiety Flashcards
What is anxiety?
A state of emotional (worried feelings) and psychological (heart rate, sweat) arousal, in reaction to stressful situations
Johnson and Scott (1976) procedure
In the low-anxiety condition p’s seated in a waiting room heard a conversation in the next room and a man walk out carrying a greased pen. In the high-anxiety condition p’s heard a heated argument, accompanied by the sound of glass and a man walk out with a bloody knife
Johnson and Scott (1976) findings
49% of p’s in the low-anxiety condition correctly identifies the man from photos, compared to 33% in the high-anxiety condition, arguably due to the tunnel theory/weapon-focus effect
Yuille and Cutshall (1986) procedure
4-5 months after a real-life shooting at a gun shop in Canada, 13 witnesses were interviewed and were compared with original police interviews at the time of the shooting. Witnesses were asked to rate how stressed they felt at the time of the incident
Yuille and Cutshall (1986) findings
P’s who reported highest levels of stress accurately recalled 88% compared to 75% for the less stressed group, suggesting anxiety could possibly enhance EWT
Yerkes-Dodson law
The relationship between anxiety and performance looks like an inverted-U. Performance will increase with stress but only to a certain point, where it decreases drastically
Strengths of anxiety
- Supportive evidence of Yerkes-Dodson law (eg. Valentine & Mesout found 17% high anxiety and 75% low anxiety identified actor from Labyrinth of Horror)
- Supportive evidence of Yerke-Dodson law (eg. Recall of bank workers in robbery was higher)
Limitations of anxiety
- Johnson & Scott’s study lacks construct validity (eg. Pickel argues weapon focus effect is due to surprise not anxiety)
- Too reductionist (eg. Inverted-U theory only considers physiological arousal, not a full holistic idea)
