FATAOEWT : Anxiety

Question 1

What is Anxiety?

Answer 1

A state of emotional and physical arousal, creating feelings of panic, worry and tension

Question 2

Describe the research on the negative effect of recall

Answer 2

• Johnson and Scott (1976). Participants believed they were taking part in a lab study and in the low anxiety condition heard a causal conversation next door and then saw a man walk out with a pen and grease on his hands
• In the high anxiety condition, they heard a heated argument and saw a man walk out with a knife covered in blood

Question 3

What were the findings of the research?

Answer 3

• the partcipants were asked to pick the man out from 50 photos and 49% of people could identify him in the low anxiety condition
• 33% could in the high anxiety condition

Question 4

What is the tunnel theory?

Answer 4

• their is enhanced memory for central events, in this case it was the weapon

Question 5

Explain the research on anxiety having a positive effect on recall

Answer 5

• Yuille and Cutshall conducted a study of a shooting in a shop.
• 13 witnesses took part
• they were interviewed 5 months after and compared to the intermediate interviews
• they ranked their stress at the time on a 7 point scale

Question 6

What were the findings of Yuile and Cutshalls research

Answer 6

• the witnesses accuracy remained after 5 Months, little details changed
• those with higher anxiety on the scale were the most accurate (88 for higher anxiety and 75% for low anxiety)

Question 7

Describe the research on contradictory research

Answer 7

• Deffenbacher reviewed 21 studies of EWT and created the yerkes - Dodson law.

Question 8

What is yerkes Dodson law and draw it

Answer 8

• as anxiety increases, performance improves to a peak (optimal accuracy)
• however, after this there is a drastic decline

Question 9

What are two strengths of this research.

Answer 9

S - There is evidence for negative effects from Valentine and Mesout who studied the effects of weapon effect. They measured heart rate and divided participants into high and low anxiety groups. Partcipants that had higher anxiety had a lower ability to recall details about actors in the London Dungeon’s Labyrinth.

S = Anxiety may have a positive effecr on recall accuracy. Christianson and Hubinette interviewed 58 witnesses to actual bank robberies in Sweden. Some of the witnesses were directly involved and others were bystanders. They found that directly involved participants who experienced the most anxiety had higher recall. Accuracy was more than 75% across all witnesses which shows anxiety may enhance the accuracy of recall.

Question 10

What are the two weaknesses of this

Answer 10

1. Johnson and scott’s research may not have tested anxiety. The participants may have been suprised and focused on the weapon rather than scared. Pickel conducted an experiment using scissors, a handgun, a wallet or a raw chicken as the hand held items in a hairdresing salon video. EWT accuracy was significantly worse in the high unusualness condition. This suggests weapon focus effects are due to unusualness rather than anxiety.
2. Problems with the inverted U theory as it only measures arousal and not the cognitive, behavioural, emotional and physical aspects of anxiety showing that it is limited.