Role of anxiety

Question 1

What is the Yerkes Dodson law of anxiety?

Answer 1

performance increases with anxiety until the optimum after which it will performance will decline again

Question 2

what affect does the Yerkes Dodson law have on EWT?

Answer 2

Recall improves to a point then declines with anxiety

Question 3

what did Loftus et al 1987 find?

Answer 3

observed eyewitnesses eye movements
found that people focus on weapons
this takes focus from the perpetrators face
anxiety can be positive or negative

Question 4

what did Johnson and Scott/Loftus et al 1979 find?

Answer 4

to investigate affects of anxiety on EWT
participants told to wait in a waiting room
one group heard an aggressive discussion
one group heard a calm conversation
A group saw a man run out with a bloody knife
C group saw a man leave with a greasy pen
both groups show 50 images to identify the man
suspect may or may not be present
49% of group C were correct
33% of group A were correct
shows the weapon focus affect is bad for EWT

Question 5

What did Yule and Cutshall 1986 find?

Answer 5

to find how misleading information affects EWT
13 witnesses to robbery reinterviewed
5 months after crime
shop keeper was shot and injured
young man was shot and killed
2 misleading questions in interview
misleading questions had no effect on EWT
very accurate recall
most distressed had best recall
even with high anxiety and weapons, witnesses have strong recall of real life events

Question 6

why are lab exes bad to test anxiety?

Answer 6

Sympathetic arousal is caused by acute stress
Greater in real life but lost in a lab

anxiety is not the same in a lab
tests of recall lack ecological validity
results in real life would differ

Question 7

what did Parker 2006 find?

Answer 7

interview victims of a Hurricane
defined anxiety through damage taken
link found between anxiety and level of recall

Question 8

what did Valentine and Meson 2009 find?

Answer 8

visitors to London dungeon filled questionnaire
self report of anxiety felt
heat monitors were worn to confirm anxiety
two groups were made of high and low anxiety
asked to describe a person in the labyrinth
high anxiety recalled least with more mistakes
17% of H group identified the actor
75% of L group identified the actor
shows negative effect of anxiety on EWT