anxiety

• define anxiety

  state of emotional and physical arousal
• what are the positive effects of anxiety?

  stress triggers fight or flight response

  • increases alertness
  • improves memory as more aware of cues
• what are the negative effects of anxiety?

  tunnel theory and weapon-focus effect
• who studied the positive effects of anxiety on recall?

  Yuille and Cutshall in 1986
• outline Yuille & Cutshall's study of positive effects of anxiety

  real-life robbery of a gun shop with 13 witnesses

  • 88% accuracy if higher stress levels
  • 75% accuracy if lower stress levels
• who studied the negative effects of anxiety on recall?

  Johnson and Scott in 1976
• outline Johnson & Scott's study of negative effects of anxiety

  participants were left in a waiting room

  • condition 1 - low anxiety (discussions about equipment failure and saw someone leaving with a pen and grease on their hand)
  • condition 2 - high anxiety (discussion with breaking glass, crashing chairs and someone left carrying knife with blood)

  participants had to identify the man from a line-up of 50 photos

  • 49% of those who saw the pen identified accurately
  • 33% of those who saw the knife identified accurately
• explain Yerkes-Dodson law

  moderate amount of anxiety can have a positive effect on recall but once it gets too high then performance will decline

  
• evaluate the effect of anxiety on recall

  • Johnson & Scott may have tested surprise, Pickel found that identification was least accurate in high surprise conditions (raw chicken) than high threat (scissors), lowers internal validity

  
  

  • Yuille & Cutshall was a field study, lacks control over extraneous variables, weakens research

  
  

  • creating anxiety creates ethical issues, so difficult to study in controlled conditions