EWT - Anxiety

• How are ethical issues a limitation in the research into anxiety effecting EWT?

  • creating anxiety is risky
  • unethical because it subjects the people to psychological harm
  • this issue doesn’t challenge the findings from the studies but it does question the need for such research
  • the benefits from a field study might it way the issues ( making it better than the lab study)
• How is does the research into anxiety effecting EWT lack control?

  • researchers usually interview the witness after the event
  • things can happen over time which the researchers have no control over: discussions with other people, media , effects from the police
  • it’s possible that these extraneous variables may be responsible for the accuracy of the recall
• 2 limitations of research into anxiety effecting EWT

  • Field studies sometimes lack control
  • ethical issues
• What is the Yerkes-Dodson Law?

  An inverted U theory that states that performance will increase with stress, but only to a certain point, where it decreases drastically

  
• What is tunnel theory?

  A witnesses attention narrows to focus on the the weapon , because it's the source of the anxiety
• Johnson and Scott (1976) findings

  • Picked out the man from 50 photos
  • 49% had seen the man with the pen were able to identify him
  • 33% who had seen the man with knife where able to identify him
  • Suggests tunnel theory
• Why might anxiety cause a negative effect on recall?

  Creates a psychological arousal in the body which prevents us paying attention to important cues
• Johnson and Scott (1976) procedure


  • participants believed that they were taking part in a lab study
  • while seated participants heard an argument
  • Low anxiety condition —> a man walked through the waiting area, carrying a pen with grease on his hands
  • High anxiety condition —> a man walked out of the room holding a paper knife that was covered in blood
• Who conducted the study showing that anxiety has a negative effect on recall?

  Johnson and Scott (1976)
• Yuille and Cutshall (1986) Findings:


  • witnesses were accurate and had little change
  • colour of items /age/weight/height were less accurate
  • the participants who reported higher levels of distress were most accurate ( 88% compared to 75%)
• What was Yuille and Cutshall's (1986) procedure?

  • study on a real-life shooting in a gun shop in Vancouver: shop owner shot a thief dead
  • 21 witnesses, 13 took part in study
  • interviews were 4-5 months after these were compared to the police statement
  • accuracy was reported buy the number of details reported in each account
  • asked to rate how stressed they were on a 7 digit scale: also asked if they had emotional distress
• Why might anxiety have a positive effect on recall?

  Fight or flight response is triggered which increases our alertness and improves our memory for the event because we become more aware of our surroundings
• Who conducted the study suggesting that anxiety has a positive effect on recall?

  Yuille and Cutshall (1989)