Factors Affecting EWTs: Anxiety

Question 1

Briefly explain Johnson and Scott’s experiment

Answer 1

-participants seated in a waiting room and argument staged in the next room
-low anxiety condition: man walked through waiting room carrying a pen with grease in his hands
-high anxiety condition: man walked through waiting room carrying paper knife covered in blood and ppts heard sound of breaking glass
-49% identified man in low anxiety condition and 33% identified man in high anxiety condition
-concluded anxiety reduces accuracy of recall

Question 2

Reason for why anxiety decreases accuracy of EWTs

Answer 2

-tunnel theory argues this happens due to the witness’s attention which narrowly focuses on the weapon as it is the source of anxiety (weapon focus)

Question 3

Expand on research by Yullie and Cutshall

Answer 3

-shopkeeper shot thief, 21 witnesses with 13 in the study
-interviewed five months later compared to their initial police interview and asked how anxious they were at the time
-found little change in accuracy over time, high stress - 88% accuracy and low stress - 75% recall
-concluded that more anxiety means more accurate EWT

Question 4

Why does more anxiety increase accuracy of EWT

Answer 4

Fight or flight response triggered which increases our alertness and improves our memory of the event and we become more aware of cues in the situation

Question 5

What is the Yerkes-Dodson law

Answer 5

Memory becomes more accurate as level of anxiety experienced increases however there comes a point where the optimal level of anxiety is reached and any more stress means recall suffers

Question 6

Evaluation points of Johnson and Scott’s study

Answer 6

-lab study means control over EVs as could use standardised procedure in how man behaved
-low ecological validity as waiting room not reflective of where would normally witness crime
-do not know actual anxiety level of ppts as anxiety was inferred based on condition
-psychological harm- exposed to distressing situation which they may have thought was real

Question 7

Evaluation points of Yullie and Cutshall’s experiment

Answer 7

-low control over EVs as natural study meaning low internal validity as cannot control PED whether they talked to other witnesses and their proximity to the crime
-high ecological validity as was real crime occurring in real setting and mundane realism as emotion genuine
-subjective rating of anxiety as they rated themselves and retrospective meaning may not be accurate, also social desirability bias as may downplay anxiety to not seem weak
-psychological harm- forcing ppts to recall traumatic crime