EWT: Anxiety

• Anxiety

  Anxiety has strong emotional and physical effects.

  It is not clear whether these effects make eyewitnesses recall better or worse.

  There is research to support BOTH possibilities.
• What is the effect of anxiety on recall?


  Anxiety has a negative effect on recall
• What was the aim of Johnson and Scott's (1976) study?


  To investigate the effect of weapons on accuracy of recall
• What did participants think they were taking part in during the study?


  Participants thought they were taking part in a lab study
• What did participants overhear while waiting for the study?


  Participants overheard an argument
• What were the two conditions in Johnson and Scott's study?


  • Condition 1: Man entered holding a pen
  • Condition 2: Man entered with a knife covered in blood
• What percentage of participants correctly identified the man in Condition 1?


  49% of participants correctly identified the man
• What percentage of participants were accurate in Condition 2?


  33% of participants were accurate in Condition 2
• What conclusion can be drawn from Johnson and Scott's study?


  Anxiety negatively affects recall due to attention being focused on the weapon
• How does the presence of a weapon affect a witness's attention according to the study's conclusion?


  The presence of a weapon diverts the witness's attention, creating anxiety
• AO3 - Johnson & Scott

  (-) It may test surprise not anxiety

  Pts may focus on the weapon as they are surprised at what they see rather than because they are scared

  Pickel (1998): Used scissors, handgun, raw chicken (!!!) and wallet as hand-held items in a hairdressing salon.

  • Findings - EWT accuracy was poorer for high unusualness ( chicken and handgun)
  • = weapon focus effect due to unusualness rather than anxiety/threat and therefore tell us nothing specifically about the effects of anxiety on accuracy of EWT.
• Anxiety has a positive effect on recall

  Yuille & Cutshall (1986)

  Procedure:

  In a real-life crime a gun-shop owner shot a thief dead. There were 21 witnesses, 13 agreed to participate in the study.

  Pts were interviewed 4-5 months after the incident.

  Accounts were compared to the police interviews at the time of the shooting

  Witnesses rates how stressed they felt at the time of the incident
• Anxiety has a positive effect on recall

  Yuille & Cutshall (1986)

  Findings and conclusions:

  Witnesses were very accurate and there was little change after 5 months. Some details were less accurate eg. colours of items, and age weight/height

  Pts who reported the highest level of stress were most accurate (about 88% compared to 75% for the less-stressed group)
• Explaining the contradictory findings

  Affects memory - Deffenbacher (1983)

  • Lower level of anxiety produce lower level of recall accuracy
  • Recall accuracy increases with anxiety up to an optimal point
  • A drastic decline in accuracy is seen when an eyewitness experiences more anxiety than the optimal points
• Limitations

  (-) Fields studies lack of control of variables

  (-)Demand characteristics may affect lab studies of anxiety

  (-)Ethical issues in this research area.

  (-)The inverted U explanation is too simplistic

  Anxiety is difficult to define as it has many elements. The inverted U explanation assumes that one of these is linked to poor performance – physiological arousal.