7. Anxiety - Factors affecting the accuracy of EWT

    Cards (8)

    • What is anxiety?
      • State of emotional and physical arousal
      • Emotions include worried thoughts and feelings of tension
      • Physical changes include increased heart rate and sweatiness
      • Can have positive and negative effects on the accuracy of EWT
    • What is the weapon focus effect?
      • Proposed by Loftus
      • Anxiety is caused as a result of witnessing a weapon which focuses attention away from potential perpetrators and reduces accuracy of EWT
    • Who carried out research into anxiety having a negative impact on the accuracy of EWT?
      Johnson and Scott
    • Describe Johnson and Scott's research into the negative impact of anxiety on the accuracy of EWT
      • Participants were told to wait in a reception area
      • Independent groups design: 'no weapon' = participants overheard an argument in the lab and an individual left the lab and walked past holding a pen with hands covered in grease
      • Weapon condition = Heard the sound of breaking glass and individual held a bloodied letter opener
      • 50 photographs - those witnessed a man with a pen identified 49% correctly, letter opener = 39%
      • Anxiety associated with seeing a knife reduces accuracy of EWT
    • Who carried out research into anxiety having a positive impact on the accuracy of EWT?
      Yuille and Cutshall
    • Describe Yuille and Cutshall's research into the positive impact on the accuracy of EWT
      • Conducted a study on a real life shooting - shop owner shot a thief dead - there were 21 witnesses, 13 took part
      • Interviews occurred 4 months after the incident and were compared to the original EWT
      • Accuracy was determined on the number of details reported
      • Rated stress levels on a 7 point scale
      • Those with the highest stress levels were the most accurate (88% compared to 77%)
    • What is the inverted U hypothesis?
      • Suggests the relationship between emotional arousal and performance looks like an inverted U
      • Lower levels of anxiety produced lower recall and memory becomes more accurate as the level of anxiety increases
      • There's a optimal level of anxiety that's reached - if there's more stress than this, recall suffers a drastic decline
    • Evaluation of the impact of anxiety on the accuracy of EWT
      • Element of surprise should be considered
      • Ethical issues should be considered - subject to psychological harm - questions the needs for such research
      • Field studies lack control - researchers have no control over discussion with other people about the event e.g. media