EWT: Anxiety

• Who provided evidence that anxiety reduces the accuracy of EWT?

  Deffenbacher (1983)
• What did Deffenbacher (1983) use to research anxiety and EWT?

  Used inverted U hypothesis to explain relationship between anxious arousal and performance
• Deffenbacher found when you are not anxious, your recall is low and you are not paying attention
• Deffenbacher found when you are really anxious your recall is low as you are too stressed
• Deffenbacher found when your anxiety is in the middle of bad and good, your recall is best
• What did Clifford and Scott (1978) research?

  Investiagte effects of stress on recall of information
• Clifford and Scott (1978) researched the effects of stress on recall of information
• What happened in Clifford and Scott (1978) research?

  Participants watched two versions of a film, one with a violent attack and one with a violent attack where one boy was shot in the face
• What were the results of Clifford and Scotts (1978) research?

  Individuals who saw the more violent video remembered significantly fewer details compared to the group who saw the less violent one
• Loftus (1979) refers to the effect of ‘weapon focus’ where attention of the witness is drawn to the weapon in the crime and other details can not be recalled.
• Loftus (1979) refers to weapon focus where attention of the witness is drawn to the weapon and not other features
• Who researched evidence that anxiety does not reduce the accuracy of EWT?

  Yullie and Cutshall (1986)
• Yullie and Cutshall (1986) did research on how anxiety does not reduce the accuracy of EWT
• How many took part in Yullie and Cutshall research?

  13 took part in a conducted study of an actual shooting in Canada
• Yullie and Cutshall re-interviewed witness who saw the accident 4-5 months after the incident and compared them to the interview at the time of the incident. Recall was found to be accurate even after a long time.those reported to be most stressed had the most accurate recall.
• What is a limitation of Deffenbacher (1983) study? (AO3)

  It ignores the other elements of anxiety such as cognitive, behavioural, emotional and physical
• Witnessing an incident is likely to cause distress and upset which can affect witnesses and lead to less accurate testimonies. It is not clear if anxiety makes recall less or more accurate.
• Clifford and Scott concluded stress affects recall of infomration
• AO3 What is one strength to Anxiety and EWT?

  Supporting evidence from Yullie and Cutshall

  • Supports how real-life recall where memory is accurate months this later
  • Overcomes critism made of lab studies which may not reflect real life.
• A03 What is a weakness to Anxiety and EWT?

  Pickel (1998) suggested weapon focus may not be relevant and might not be due to anxiety but how unusual something is.

  • Pickel did an experiment and showed a different object each time each time as the weapon.
  • Accuracy was higher for unusual objects
• 1. Clifford and Scott (1978) said stress negatively affects recall
  2. Yullie and Cutshall said stress helped with recall
  3. Loftus said weapon focus negativlay impacts recall