Memory: EWT Anxiety Flashcards
what’s anxiety?
a state of emotional and physical arousal. the emotions include having worried thoughts and feeling tense. physical changes include increased heart rate and sweatiness. anxiety is a normal reaction to stressful situations
what was Johnson + Scott’s research into negative effect of anxiety?
they led participants to believe they were taking part in a lab study. while seated in a waiting room, the participants heard an arguement. in the low-anxiety condition, a man walked out with grease and a pen, in the high-anxiety, he was holding a bloody paper knife.
what were the findings of Johnson + Scott’s research?
the participants had to pick the man from 50 photos. 49% in low-anxiety could identify him while only 33% in the high-anxiety. this supports the tunnel theory.
what was Yuille + Cutshall’s research on the positive effects of anxiety?
they studied a real-life shooting in a gun shop. the owner shot a thief dead. 21 witnesse and 13 agreed to take part. they were interviewed 4-5 months after the incident which were compared to the original interviews. they were asked to rate how stressed they felt and any emotional problems since.
what were the findings of Yuille + Cutshall’s study?
the witnesses were very accurate and little change in accuracy after 5 months. some details were less accurate - colour of items, age, height, weight. the participants who recalled higher stress levels had the best accuracy.
how might weapon focus effect not be relevant? (A03)
Johnson and Scott’s study may test surpise rather than anxiety. they focus on the weapon because they’re surpirised at what they’re seeing rather than scared. Pickel conducted a study using scissors, handgun, wallet and raw chicken. accuracy was lower in the most unusualness conditions. this suggests weapon focus effect is due to unusualness rather than anxiety.
how do the field studies lack control? (A03)
researchers interview witnesses a while after the event where all sorts of things could’ve happened in the mean time that researchers can’t control - discussions, social media, interviews. these extraneous variables may be responsible for accuracy as they can be overwhelmed by the effect of anxiety.
what are the ethical issues?
creating anxiety is very risky as it subjects people to psychological harm purely for research. real-life studies are so beneficial as they don’t need to create anxiety. this issue questions the needs for such research.
