Factors affecting the accuracy of EWT - Anxiety Flashcards
What is anxiety?
A psychological response to. external pressures, characterised by an increased heart rate, vasoconstriction of blood vessels, increased sweat production
What did Johnson and Scott do in 1976?
Demonstrated that anxiety has a negative effect on the accuracy of EWT
What happened in Johnson and Scotts high anxiety room?
They overheard a heated argument in the room next door, with the sound of smashing glass and a man walking through the room with a bloody paper knife
What happened in Johnson and Scotts low anxiety room?
A man walked in the room. with a greasy pen and no sound of glass
What happened when the high anxiety room were asked to identify the man and how is it explained?
They experience 16% Lowe recall rates. This is explained by tunnel theory of memory and the weapon focus effect where are attention is drawn to the weapon as a source of anxiety
What did Yuille and Cutshall do in 1986?
Demonstrated the positive effect of anxiety and followed 13 eyewitnesses 5. months after a real shooting
What did Yuille and Cutshall find?
The eyewitnesses had a high recall after a period of time , 11% higher recall for eyewitnesses who ranked anxiety as high, however they overestimated height, weight and clothing. This supports the idea that anxiety draws our attention through external cues (fight of flight) where attention may’ve given us an evolutionary advantage by increasing chances of escaping and survival
Give a - (InvU)
Yerkes-Dodson law suggests there’s an inverted u relationship between increasing arousal and increasing performance. This. is an overly simplified explanation for anxiety as it doesn’t take into account the multiple factors making up arousal
Give a - (WFE)
Weapon focus effect tests for the effects of surprise rather than anxiety. Suggesting that the weapon focus effect cannily be used to explain certain influences of anxiety in the accuracy of EWT
Give a - (EI)
Ethical issues with exposing participants to distressing images of a car crash and asking them to recall a traumatic event which has occurred. This breaches the BPS guidelines of the right to be protected by harm, therefore a CBA should be conducted to compare the ethical costs with the the benefits of knowledge
Give a - (LSB)
Lab studies are susceptible to biasing. effects of extraneous variables which haven’t been controlled. Yuille and Cutshall couldn’t have controlled the influence of post-discussion. This and media influence means that field studies of EWT may be flawed and lack reliability
