Memory - EWT : anxiety

Question 1

What is anxiety?

Answer 1

Unpleasant emotional state where fear that something bad is going to happen is present - tends to be accompanied by physiological arousal

Question 2

Does anxiety increase or decrease accuracy of EWT?

Answer 2

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

Question 3

Why might anxiety decrease accuracy of EWT?

Answer 3

‘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

Question 4

Negative effect: Procedure used in Johnson and Scott (1976)

Answer 4

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

Question 5

Negative effect: Findings of Johnson and Scott (1976)

Answer 5

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

Question 6

Why might anxiety increases accuracy of EWT?

Answer 6

Anxiety creates physiological arousal in the body which triggers fight or flight response and increases alertness which could mean more details are picked up

Question 7

Positive effect: Procedure used in Yuille and Cutshall (1986)

Answer 7

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

Question 8

Positive effect: Findings from Yuille and Cutshall (1986)

Answer 8

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

Question 9

How can the Yerkes Dodson inverted U theory explain these contradictory findings?

Answer 9

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

Question 10

What is a limitation of the Johnson and Scott (1976) study? - questionable construct validity

Answer 10

===> 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)