EWT: anxiety

• What is anxiety?


  Unpleasant state of emotional and physical arousal.
• How does anxiety affect EWT?


  Can reduce accuracy and detail of EWT.
• What was the aim of Johnson & Scott's study?

  To investigate the effect of weapon focus on eyewitness identification.
• What did all participants in Johnson & Scott's study witness?

  Equipment failure discussion and heated argument with breaking glass.
• What did participants in Condition 1 witness?

  A man leaving the lab holding a pen with grease on his hands.
• What did participants in Condition 2 witness?

  A man leaving the lab carrying a bloodstained paper knife.
• What percentage of participants correctly identified the man with the pen?

  49%
• What percentage of participants correctly identified the man with the bloodstained knife?

  33%
• What did Johnson & Scott conclude from their study?

  Participants were less able to recall the appearance of the man with the knife due to weapon focus.
• What is the weapon focus effect?

  Witnesses accurately recall the weapon but may be less accurate with other details.
• What can witnesses accurately recall in violent crimes?

  Type of weapon and what was done with it.
• What may witnesses be less accurate at recalling in violent crimes?

  Appearance or clothing of the criminal.
• What did pickel (1976) test instead of anxiety?

  Surprise
• What did Pickel (1998) test?

  EWT of students watching a video, where the item someone was holding was either suprising or not
• What items did the man hold in the video?


  Variety of items.
• What type of items reduced EWT accuracy the most?

  High surprise items.
• What claim does Johnson and Scott make about anxiety and EWT?

  Anxiety reduces accuracy of EWT.
• What does Pickel's research contradict?

  Johnson and Scott's claim that anxiety reduces the accuracy of EWT.
• What did Yuille & Cutshall (1986) investigate?

  Effect of anxiety on eyewitness testimony
• What was the outcome of Yuille & Cutshall's study?

  13 witnesses were accurate in their accounts
• What was the accuracy rate of highly stressed participants in Yuille & Cutshall's study?

  88%
• What claim did Johnson and Scott make about anxiety and EWT?

  Anxiety reduces accuracy of EWT
• How did the evidence contradict Johnson and Scott's claim?

  Accuracy of EWT was higher for more anxious individuals
• What does the research by Yuille & Cutshall suggest about anxiety and EWT?

  Anxiety may improve accuracy of EWT
• What limitation did Yuille & Cutshall's study have?

  Non-random allocation of participants
• What alternative explanation did the non-random allocation of participants suggest?

  Better memories of participants closer to the scene
• What was the difference in accuracy rates between highly stressed and less-stressed groups in Yuille & Cutshall's study?

  Not particularly pronounced
• what was yuille and cutshalls methodology

  Yuille and Cutshall used a field study design, interviewing 13 real-life eyewitnesses to a shooting incident 4–5 months after the event, and compared their accounts to the original police interviews to assess the reliability of memory under real-life stress