Factors affecting EWT: Anxiety

• Anxiety is a physiological response to external pressures, characterised by an increased heart rate, vasoconstriction of blood vessels, increased sweat production etc. Anxiety can have either a positive or negative effect on the accuracy of EWT.
• Anziety has a negative effect on recall: -anxiety creates physiological arousal in the body which prevents us paying attention to important cues, so recall is worse. -one approach to studying anxiety and EWT has been to look at the effect of weapons (which creates anxiety) on accuracy of recall of the witness
• The weapon focus effect is where a witness focuses on the weapon used in a crime. This causes a state of anxiety which leads to difficulties in recalling the other details accurately
• Johnson and Scott (1976)- anxiety harms recall-The high-anxiety condition overheard a heated argument in the neighbouring room, with the sound of smashing glass and a man walking through the waiting room with a bloody paper knife, as opposed to a greasy pen in the low-anxiety condition. When asked to identify the man, participants in the high-anxiety condition experienced 16% lower rates of accurate recall, compared to the low-anxiety condition. It's explained by the tunnel theory of memory and the weapon focus effect, where our attention is drawn towards the weapon as a source of anxiety.
• Yuille and Cutshall (1986)

  • 13 eyewitnesses, 5 months after a shooting at a shop in Canada. Researchers found that EW accuracy was high after this, with 11% higher accuracy of recall for those EWs who ranked their anxiety as ‘high’ at the shooting and using a 7-point scale. However, there are small discrepancies in overestimates of height, weight and clothing. Supports the idea that heightened anxiety draws our attention to external cues through the ‘fight or flight’ response, where such attention may have given us an evolutionary advantage by increasing our chances of escaping and survival.
• Contradictory findings:Yerkes+Dodson law: described this as lower levels of anxiety producing lower levels of recall accuracy, but as they increase recall accuracy also increases. -However, once the optimal level is passed and pts become more stressed, recall accuracy decreases.
• One weakness is that the weapons focus effect may not be relevant. The study from Johnson and Scott is a test of surprise rather than anxiety and so weapon focus may not be relevant. Pickel conducted an experiment using scissors, a handgun, a wallet and a raw chicken in place of the handheld item. Eyewitness accuracy was significantly poorer in highly unusual situations. This suggests that the weapon focus effect is due to unusualness, rather than anxiety, which therefore tells us a little about the effects of anxiety on EWT.
• Another weakness is that demand characteristics may operate in lab studies of anxiety. During lab studies on anxiety, pts are shown a crime, which is staged. Most pts are aware they are watching a filmed crime for their study. Chances are most of them will work out for themselves that they are going to be asked questions about what they have seen. Showing that findings will lack validity as pts accurate recall isn’t due to high levels of stress but is instead due to pts figuring out the reasoning behind the study. Therefore, findings do not show the true effects of anxiety on EWT.
• One strength of this is ethical issues. Creating anxiety in pts can be risky and potentially unethical as pts are subject to psychological harm. This is why real life studies are more beneficial i.e. Yuille and Culshall, because researchers don't create anxiety as pts have already witnessed the stressful event. Therefore, findings are not challenged as researchers don’t create stress in pts and don't challenge the need for such research.
• A strength is that high anxiety can reduce recall accuracy for EWT. In Loftus’s study the higher anxiety condition, ppts heard a more hostile argument and broken glass, a man burst in with a paper knife covered in blood. In the low anxiety room, 49% later recognised that man from 50 photos,but in the higher anxiety condition, it was 33%.In conclusion, anxiety that's caused by a weapon can divert attention from other features of a situation (called weapon focus). It matters as it provides lab evidence and explanations for why high anxiety seems to reduce recall when eyewitnesses give testimony.