Factors Affecting EWT: Anxiety

Question 1

Yerkes Dodson law- anxiety

Answer 1

• Performance improves with increase in arousal up to some optimal point, and then decreases with further arousal
• It could be there is an optimal level of anxiety, with recall improving up to a point

Question 2

Johnson and Scott (1976)- anxiety has a negative effect on recall

Answer 2

• They led participants to believe they were going to take part in a lab study. While seated in a waiting room, participants heard an argument in the next room
• In the low-anxiety group, a man then walked through the areas, carrying a pen with grease on his hands
• In the high-anxiety group, participants heard the same heated argument, but with the sound of glass breaking. A man then walked out of the room holding a paper knife with blood on it
• When the participants had to identify the man from a set of 50 photos, there was 49% accuracy in the low-anxiety group, and 33% accuracy in the high-anxiety group
• The tunnel theory suggest that a witness’s attention narrows to focus on the weapon, as that is the source of anxiety

Question 3

Yuille and Cutshall (1986)- anxiety has a positive effect on recall

Answer 3

• They conducted a study of a real-life shooting in Canada. The shop owner shot a thief dead. There were 21 witnesses, and 13 agreed to take part in the study
• There were interviews 4-5 months after the crime and compared with the police interviews that were held at the time of the shooting
• Accuracy was determined by the number of details reported in each account. The witnesses were also asked how they felt at the time of the incident in terms of stress
• They found that witnesses were very accurate in their accounts. The participants who had reported the highest levels of stress were the most accurate (about 88% compared to 75% for the less-stressed group)

Question 4

Evaluation of research into effect of anxiety on EWT

Answer 4

• Weapon focus effect may not be relevant: Pickel (1998) conducted an experiment using scissors, a handgun, wallet or a raw chicken as the hand-held items in a hairdresser. EWT testimony was significantly poorer in the highly unusualness conditions (e.g chicken and gun). This suggests that the weapon focus effect is due to unusualness rather than threat/anxiety
• Field studies sometimes lack control: All sorts of things will have happened to the participants in the meantime that the researcher cannot control e.g PED. It is possible that these extraneous variables may be response for the accuracy of recall
• Ethical issues: Creating anxiety in participants could be seen as unethical as it may subject participants to psychological harm purely for the purpose of research