Evaluation

• ✅ Used realistic task -> Ecological Validity

  • Yuille & Cutshall used a sample who had actually witnessed a real crime
  • suggests the results would match exactly what we would expect in real life
• ❌ Extraneous variables -> Validity

  • in Yuille & Cutshall's research they asked ppts to recall 4-5 months later
  • post-event discussion is likely to have impacted the accuracy of results rather anxiety
  • we cannot determine which factor impacted (inaccurate results)
• ❌ Multiple contradicting findings -> Reliability

  • there are three studies into anxiety that all show different results for what anxiety does to impact EWT recall
• ❌ Extraneous variables -> Validity

  • Johnson & Scott was a laboratory experiment where ppts were told to wait in a waiting room
  • they might have guessed something was going to happen and paid more attention than normal
  • makes it likely demand characteristics impacted the results rather than the actual impact of anxiety