Anxiety affecting EWT evaluation

• LIMITATION

  • Johnson's and Scott's study may test surprise, not anxiety
  • ppts may focus on a weapon because they are surprised
  • Pickel used scissors, a handgun, a wallet, and raw chicken as handheld items in a hairdressing salon, EWT was poorer for high unusualness
  • weapon focus effect is due to unusualness, and tells us nothing about the effects of anxiety on EWT
• LIMITAION

  • field studies lack control of variables
  • real-life witnesses are interviewed sometime after the event
  • many things happen to them in the meantime which researchers cannot control
  • example would be discussions with each other after the event
  • these extraneous variables may be responsible for (in)accuracy o recall
• STRENGTH

  • supporting evidence that anxiety has a negative effect on recall
  • Mueller et al gave 96 students a test of anxiety and then gave them 50 black or white photos, mixed with 50 unseen photos, and they had to indicate which ones they had seen before
  • link between high levels of anxiety and poor recall
• STERNGTH

  • supporting evidence that anxiety has a positive effect on recall
  • Riniolo et al studied the sinking of the Titanic. Until the wreck was discovered, it was believed the ship sank intact. 75% of eyewitnesses reported it broke as it sank, they found it was true and the bow and stern lay 2000 feet apart
  • anxiety can improve recall
• LIMITAION

  • inverted U explanation is too simplistic
  • anxiety is hard to define and measure because it has many elements
  • the explanation assumes that one of these is linked to poor performance
  • explanation fails to account for other factors, such as the emotional impact witnessing a crime has on a person