Memory: topic 7 ‘the effects of anxiety on the accuracy of EWT’

Question 1

What is anxiety and how is it presented?

Answer 1

• a state of emotional and physical arousal
• emotional changes may include worried thoughts and feelings of tension
• physical changes may include an increased heart rate and rapid breathing

Question 2

What do researchers argue about anxiety?

Answer 2

• it can affect the accuracy of EWT in different ways

Question 3

What is the weapon focus effect?

Answer 3

• the presence of a weapon increases anxiety
• this makes the eyewitness focus on central details (eg the weapon) rather than peripheral details (eg what else was going on)
• this means the eyewitness may struggle to recall key details of what the saw such as the face of the attacker or what they were wearing as they are so focused on the weapon, making EWT less accurate

Question 4

What did Johnson and Scott’s research show about the effects of anxiety caused by a weapon being present?

Answer 4

• they conducted a laboratory experiment in which participants were split into two conditions and instructed to wait outside a room before the study began
• in both conditions participants heard a discussion in a neighbouring room
• In condition 1 a man came out holding a pen and with grease on his hands
• in condition 2, the discussion was rather more heated and a man emerged holding a paperknife covered in blood
• the participants were later asked to identify the man from 50 photographs
• it was found that participants in condition 1 (pen and grease condition) were 49% accurate and those in condition 2 (paperknife and blood) were only 33% accurate
• it was concluded that the anxiety caused by the weapon narrowed the focus of attention making their recall less detailed and accurate which may explain why eyewitnesses sometimes have poor recall for certain violent crimes