Memory - EWT : anxiety Flashcards
What is anxiety?
Unpleasant emotional state where fear that something bad is going to happen is present - tends to be accompanied by physiological arousal
Does anxiety increase or decrease accuracy of EWT?
Creates a physiological arousal in body (increased heart rate, shallow breathing) which prevents us paying attention to important cues so recall is worse but could trigger fight or flight which can increase alertness
Why might anxiety decrease accuracy of EWT?
‘Weapon focus’ effect is when witnesses concentrate so much on a weapon at the scene of a crime, that this reduces accuracy of recall on other details of crime
Negative effect: Procedure used in Johnson and Scott (1976)
Ppts. led to believe they were taking part in study and whilst seated, heard argument in next room.
Low-anxiety condition - man walked through waiting area carrying pen with grease on hands
High-anxiety condition - sound of breaking glass and man walked out room holding paper knife covered in blood
Negative effect: Findings of Johnson and Scott (1976)
Ppts. later had to pick out man from 50 photos
49% of low-anxiety condition correctly identified him
33% of high-anxiety correctly identified
Tunnel theory of memory argues witness’s attention narrows to focus on weapon as it’s a source of anxiety
Why might anxiety increases accuracy of EWT?
Anxiety creates physiological arousal in the body which triggers fight or flight response and increases alertness which could mean more details are picked up
Positive effect: Procedure used in Yuille and Cutshall (1986)
Real shooting in gun shop in Canada where shop owner shot thief dead. 21 witnesses and 13 took part in study. Interview took place 4-5 months after incident and compared to one made at time of incident. Accuracy determined by number of correct details reported in each interview. Ppts. also asked to rate anxiety felt at time on 7 point scale
Positive effect: Findings from Yuille and Cutshall (1986)
Ppts. very accurate in their accounts and there was little change in EWT even after 5 months. Ppts. who reported highest levels of stress were most accurate
88% accuracy for high-anxiety
75% accuracy for low-anxiety
How can the Yerkes Dodson inverted U theory explain these contradictory findings?
Deffenbacher (1983) applied Yerkes-Dodson law to EWT. Inverted U theory explains how anxiety can have both a positive and negative affect on someone’s ability to accurately recall info
Low anxiety = low recall
Optimum anxiety = maximum accuracy
High anxiety = low recall
What is a limitation of the Johnson and Scott (1976) study? - questionable construct validity
===> Possible that researchers were measuring effect of surprise on EWT rather than anxiety. Pickel (1998) conducted study in hairdressing salon where confederate entered salon holding either scissors, handgun, wallet or raw chicken. Results showed EWT accuracy was significantly poorer on unexpected item conditions (chicken and gun) suggesting that weapon focus effect may be due to surprise and not anxiety (chicken and gun produced similar results)
What is a limitation of the Yuille and Cutshall (1986) study? - Lack of control in research design
===> It was conducted in a natural environment, so has low internal validity. Some ppts. may have talked about crime after, read articles or some may not have though about it since. Potential confounding varibales could affect the second interview and change aspects of it from the first. Worth noting that the field experiment aspect means it had higher ecological validity than Johnson and Scott. Potentially better insights into effect of anxiety on EWT in real life
What is a limitation of the research into anxiety? - Failure to consider individual differences in emotional sensitivity
===> Bothwell (1987) categorised ppts. as emotionally stable or neurotic based on level of neuroticism. As anxiety increased in emotionally stable, so did levels of EWT accuracy but the opposite was true for neurotic ppts. Deffenbacher at al (2004) also proposed modest effect sizes in studies on anxiety could be down to averaging out of results from individuals with varying emotional sensitivities
What is a limitation of the effects of anxiety of EWT? - Challenge of accurately defining and measuring anxiety
===> Anxiety encompasses various components (emotional, physiological, behavioral and cognitive aspects). Lab experiments often focus solely on physiological arousal, like inverted U theory. Reliance on this theory falls short in providing comprehensive explanation and hinders complete understanding of anxiety influence on EWT
