Anxiety

• Why does anxiety have a negative effect on EWT?

  • Anxiety creates physiological arousal in the body.
  • Prevents us paying attention to important cues.
  • Recall worse
• who was the key psychologists for negative effect on EWT?

  Johnson and Scott 1976
• what was the procedure to the Johnson and Scott 1976 experiment?

  • participants believed they were in a lab study.
  • seated in a waiting room, they heard an argument
• what was the low anxiety condition

  man walked out carrying a pen and with grease on his hands
• what was the high anxiety condition?

  pts heard breaking glass and a man walked out holding knife covered in blood
• what were the findings to the johnson and Scott experiment?

  participants asked to identify the man from 50 photos

  • low anxiety - 49% accurate
  • high anxiety - 33% accurate
• what is tunnel theory?

  a witnesses’ attention narrows to focus on the weapon because it is a source of anxiety. this leads to important details not being recalled
• why does anxiety have a positive fact on EWT?

  • stress creates anxiety
  • fight or flight triggered
  • increased alertness and improved memory.
  • we are more aware of cues in the situation
• who were the key psychologists for the positive effect on EWT?

  yuille and cutshall 1986
• what was the procedure to yuilles and cutshalls experiment?

  • real life shooting
  • interviews held 4-5 months after incident and compared with original police interviews.
  • rate how stressed they felt during incident.
• what were the findings to yuilles and cutshalls experiment?

  • very accurate with little change in accuracy after 5 months.
  • some details less accurate such as age, height or weight.
  • highest levels of stress reported were most accurate - 88%
  • 75% for less stressed group
• what did yerkes and Dodson 1908 state?

  the relationship between emotional arousal and performance looks like an inverted U
• what did deffenbacher 1983 state?

  yerkes-Dodson law
• what does the yerkes Dodson law state?

  • lower anxiety leads to lower levels of recall accuracy
  • optimal anxiety - maximum accuracy
  • any more anxiety, recall drastically declines