Lesson 8- Accuracy of EWT (anxiety)

Question 1

What is anxiety?

Answer 1

Anxiety- 💪 emotional 😭 & physical effects on 👁 witness

Question 2

Which psychologists investigated emotional arousal & peformance and when?

Answer 2

Yerkes & Dodson (1908)

Question 3

What did Yerkes & Dodson come up with?

Answer 3

Yerkes & Dodson (1908) Law- emotional arousal & performance- inverted U:
— Low anxiety = low accuracy
— Medium anxiety = optimal accuracy
— High anxiety = low accuracy

Question 4

Who supported Yerkes & Dodson’s Law?

Answer 4

Daffenbacher (1983)- supports Law

Question 5

What is an example of high anxiety an eye witness could feel?

Answer 5

Weapon focus effect:

1) Crime committed- 👁 witness watching event- medium anxiety
2) Criminal pulls out weapon 🔪- anxiety levels ⬆️ as 👁 witness focuses on weapon 🔪- possibility to miss other details- zones in focus on weapon

Question 6

Who investigated evidence into the weapon focus effect and when?

Answer 6

Johnson & Scott (1976)

Question 7

What Johnson & Scott do?

Answer 7

Pps sat outside lab 🧪 & heard 1 of 2 conditions:
1) Friendly conversation- 👨 emerging carrying 🖊 with greasy 🖐 🤚 (⬇️ anxiety)
2) Argument- smashing glass- overturned furniture 🪑- 👨 emerging carrying 🩸stained paper 🔪 (⬆️ anxiety)
Pps- had to identify criminal- based on 50 photos

Question 8

What did Johnson & Scott find?

Answer 8

1) 49% accurate in identifying 👨 with 🖊
2) 33% accurate in identifying 👨 with 🔪
… shows ⬆️ anxiety = worse recall because 👁 witnesses focused on weapon 🔪 rather than criminal face

Question 9

Which psychologists produced a counter study which showed high anxiety = high recall and when?

Answer 9

COUNTER study- ⬆️ anxiety = good recall- Christianson & Hubinette (1993)

Question 10

What did the study that looked at high anxiety meaning high recall do and what did it find?

Answer 10

1) Questioned 58 real 👁 witnesses (either victims or bystanders) about 🏦 robbery in Sweden 🇸🇪
2) Most anxious 😥 👁 witnesses (victims) had best recall- suggests ⬆️ stress = better recall/detail

Question 11

What are the evaluation points for the affects of anxiety on EWT?

Answer 11

👎- weapon 🔪 focus ✖️ caused by anxiety BUT surprise- Pickel (1998)- pps watch thief enter hairdressing 💇‍♀‍ carrying 1) ✂️ (⬆️ threat ⬇️ surprise), 2) 🔫 (⬆️ threat ⬆️ surprise), 3) wallet (⬇️ threat ⬇️ surprise), 4) whole raw 🐓 🍗 (⬇️ threat ⬆️ surprise)- identification least accurate in ⬆️ surprise conditions rather than ⬆️ threat
👎- Ethical issues- psychological harm created through anxiety- necessary when real life events can also create anxiety?- 🩸 🔪
👎- Field studies lack control- natural studies (e.g. Christianson & Hubinette)- confounding variables effect results- ppl closest to incident experienced ⬆️ anxiety BUT ⬆️ accurate- clearly 👀
ALSO extraneous variables e.g. post event discussion- affected/changed 👁 witness recall- ⬆️ difficult to conclude effect of anxiety of EWT accuracy
👎- individual differences- rather than anxiety- personality traits allow certain people- stay calm under pressure … ⬆️ accurate. Anxiety & recall effect ppl differently- results ✖️ generalised to everyone