EWT - Anxiety

• What do stressful situations create?

  Anxiety
• How do stressful situations affect memory?

  They have emotional and physical impacts
• How can recall accuracy be affected by anxiety?

  It may improve or worsen
• What study investigated anxiety's negative effect on EWT?

  Johnson and Scott (1976)
• What was the procedure in Johnson and Scott's study?

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

  Low-anxiety and high-anxiety
• What did participants see in the low-anxiety condition?

  A man with a pen and grease on hands
• What did participants see in the high-anxiety condition?

  A man with a knife covered in blood
• What percentage of participants identified the man with the pen?

  49%
• What percentage of participants identified the man with the knife?

  33%
• What is the conclusion of Johnson and Scott's study?

  Attention on weapon leads to poorer recall
• What is the Weapon Focus Effect?

  Attention on weapon reduces recall accuracy
• What is a weakness of field studies in EWT research?

  They lack methodology control
• How do variables like media exposure affect recall?

  They can reduce validity
• Why are field studies considered more ethical than lab studies?

  Participants experience genuine anxiety
• What study investigated anxiety's positive effect on EWT?

  Yuille and Cutshall (1986)
• What was the context of Yuille and Cutshall's study?

  A real-life shooting in Canada
• How long after the event were witnesses interviewed in Yuille and Cutshall's study?

  4-5 months later
• What was the accuracy of highly stressed witnesses in Yuille and Cutshall's study?

  88% accuracy
• What was the accuracy of low-stress witnesses in Yuille and Cutshall's study?

  75% accuracy
• What conclusion can be drawn from Yuille and Cutshall's study?

  Anxiety may improve memory
• What law explains the relationship between anxiety and performance?

  Yerkes-Dodson Law
• What type of curve does the Yerkes-Dodson Law describe?

  An inverted-U curve
• What happens at low arousal according to the Yerkes-Dodson Law?

  Performance is poor
• What happens at medium arousal according to the Yerkes-Dodson Law?

  Performance is optimal
• What happens at high arousal according to the Yerkes-Dodson Law?

  Performance is poor
• What is a problem with the Inverted-U Theory?

  It oversimplifies anxiety
• What does the Inverted-U Theory ignore?

  Cognitive forms of anxiety
• How does oversimplification affect the validity of the Inverted-U Theory?

  It reduces validity
• What is the conclusion about the Weapon Focus Effect?

  It may be caused by surprise, not anxiety
• What did Pickel's (1988) study find about unusual objects?

  They caused poorer recall
• What does Pickel's study suggest about the Weapon Focus Effect?

  Unusualness, not anxiety, reduces accuracy
• What is the implication of Pickel's findings for the Weapon Focus explanation?

  The explanation is invalid