Factors affecting EWT: Anxiety Flashcards
What is anxiety?
A state of physical and emotional arousal. Causes worry and tension.
Does anxiety make recall better or worse?
It’s not clear whether it makes recall better or worse, there’s evidence supporting both.
How does anxiety negatively impact recall?
Anxiety creates physical arousal in the body which prevents us paying attention to important cues, so recall is worse.
What approach has been taken to look at the negative effect of anxiety on recall?
The approach of looking at the effect of weapons on recall has taken place.
Who investigated anxiety having a negative effect on recall?
Johnson and Scott (1976)
How did Johnson and Scott investigate the negative effect of anxiety on recall? - procedure
They led ppts to think that they were going to take place in a lab study. While seated in a waiting room, ppts heard an argument in the next room.
In the ‘low-anxiety’ condition, a man walked through a waiting area, carrying a pen with grease on his hands.
In the ‘high-anxiety’ condition, the ppts heard the same argument but it was followed by the sound of broken glass. A man walked out of the room with a paper knife that was covered in blood.
The ppts later had to pick the man out of a set of 50 photos.
What were the findings of Johnson and Scott’s study?
49% of ppts who had seen the man carrying the pen were able to identify him.
Only 33% of ppts who had seen the man holding the blood-covered knife were able to identify him.
How does the tunnel theory of memory explain the findings of Johnson and Scott’s (1976) findings?
The tunnel theory of memory argues that a witnesses attention narrows to focus on a weapon because it’s a source of anxiety.
How does anxiety have a positive effect on recall?
Anxiety triggers the fight-or-flight response which increases our alertness and improves our memory for the event because we become more aware of cues in the situation.
Who investigated the positive effect that anxiety has on recall?
Yuille and Cutshall (1986)
What event did ppts witness in Yuille and Cutshall’s study?
Ppts were real life eyewitnesses of a shooting in a gun shop in Vancouver, Canada.
The owner of the shop shot a thief dead.
How many witnesses were there to the real life shooting?
How many agreed to participate in Yuille and Cutshall’s study?
21 witnesses
13
What was the procedure of Yuille and Cutshall’s study?
Witnesses were interviewed 4-5 months after the incident and these were compared with the original police interviews made at the time of the shooting.
Accuracy was determined by the number of details reported in each account.
The witnesses were also asked to rate how stressed they had felt at the time of the incident, using a 7-point scale, and asked if they had any emotional problems since the event.
What were the findings of Yuille and Cutshall’s study?
The witnesses were very accurate in their accounts and there was little change in the amount of accuracy after 5 months - though some details such as age/weight/ height estimates were less accurate.
The ppts who reported the highest levels of stress were most accurate - about 88% compared to 75% for the less stressed group.
What did Yerkes and Dodson (1908) say the relationship between arousal and performance look like?
An inverted U.
