ANXIETY

• Does the weapon focus theory support the research of negative or positive anxiety effects on recall?

  Negative
• WEAPON FOCUS - (negative effect) - JOHNSON + SCOTT (1976)

  • Pps believed taking part in ' lab study ' - Waiting
  • ↓ anxiety condition - heard conversation + saw man carrying pen with grease
  • ↑ anxiety - Heard argument - sound of breaking glass - man walked by with bloody knife
• WEAPON FOCUS -(negative)- JOHNSON + SCOTT (1976) - conclusion

  • PPs out man from set of 50 photos
  • 49% who saw man with pen + grease identified him
  • 33% who saw man with bloody knife identified him

  Tunnel theory of memory - people have enhanced memory for central events
• Is weapon focus a result of anxiety or misleading info?

  Anxiety
• Recall may be worse for anxiety as it creates physiological arousal
• The fight or what approach is triggered to create alertness when experiencing anxiety?

  Flight
• Yuille + Cutshall (1986) - positive effects - PROCEDURE

  • Gun shooting study - in Canada
  • Owner shot thief dead
  • 13 witnesses were pps -interviewed 4 - 5 months after incident
  • Accuracy determined by amount of correct details - compared with initial police interviews
  • PPs also stated stress level on a 7 point scale + emotional problems since event
• What is the name of the graph that shows an inverted correlation between anxiety and performance?

  Yerkes - Dodson Law
• L1 - Unusualness not anxiety tested

  E - Weapon focus as surprised at event - not scared. Pickel (1998) - Scissors, handgun , wallet or raw chicken - items in hair salon - accuracy = poorer high unusualness (eg chicken)

  L - Weapon focus→ unusualness - limited anxiety effect
• S1- Research support for negative effects

  E - Valentine + Mesout (2009)

  L - ↑ anxiety level = negative effect on EWT memory
• Labyrinth of Horror - Valentine + Mesout (2009)

  • People offered ↓ price if agreed to complete anxiety questionnaire
  • Wore heart monitors to measure
  • Divided into groups of ↓ + high anxiety
• Labyrinth of Horror - Findings - Valentine + Mesout (2009)

  • People in high anxiety condition recalled less correct details
  • 17 % of people in high anxiety condition identified correct actor
  • 75 % of people in low anxiety condition identified correct actor
• S2 - Support for positive effects for recall

  E - Christianson + Hubinette - 58 bank roberry witnesses in Sweden

  Directly involved people experience ↑ anxiety -

  Recall = 75 % with all witnesses - even more with directly involved

  L -Anxiety may increase recall
• L2 - COUNTER TO S2 - C + H interviewed participants 4 to 15 months after event

  E - No control over post - event discussions - Anxiety effects overwhelmed by factors - hard to assess in interviews

  L - Lack of control over confounding variables invalidates research