EWT: anxiety

• anxiety on EWT

  anxiety has a negative effect on EWT
• aim of johnson and scott

  investigate the effect of anxiety on accuracy of EWT, specifically whether the presence of a weapon (weapon focus effect) reduces the accuracy of recall for surrounding details, such as identifying a suspect.
• procedure of johnson and scott

  low anxiety condition - Participants heard a conversation, then saw a man walk out with a pen and greasy hands.

  high anxiety condition - Participants heard a heated argument, followed by a man emerging with a bloody knife (weapon condition)
• findings of johnson and scott

  participants in the low anxiety condition correctly identifies the man 49% of the time. participants in the high anxiety condition had 33% accuracy. this supports the weapon focus effect
• christianson and hubinette


  found that increased anxiety can increase accuracy of EWT. they found enhanced recall when they were questioned 56 real witnesses to bank robberies. witnesses were either bystanders (low anxiety) or victims such bank tellers (high anxiety). the victims had the most accurate recall.
• pickel (limitation)

  believed weapon focus is due to surprise rather than anxiety. participants watched a video of a man entering a hair salon holding different objects: a handgun (high threat, high surprise), a raw chicken (low threat, high surprise), a wallet (low threat, low sorprise), and scissors (high threat, low surprise). Participants’ memory for the man was then tested. Memory accuracy was poorest in the high surprise condition (handgun and raw chicken), regardless of threat level.
• halford and milne (limitation)


  found that victims of violent crimes were more accurate on their EWT than victims of non violent crimes/ this contradicts johnson and scotts study which suggests higher anxiety leads to poorer recall.
• deffenbacker (strength)

  did a meta analysis of 21 studies on the relationship between anxiety and EWT accuracy. he found the yerkes-dodson effect.

  low anxiety - poor recall - due to lack of attention

  high anxiety - poor recall - due to stress overload.
• bothwell (limitation)

  investigated if personality trats influence the relationship between recall and anxiety. Participants were categorised as either neurotic (emotionally unstable) or stable before being exposed to an anxiety-inducing situation. stable participants had better recall. this contradicts the idea that anxiety has the same effect on everyone.