ANXIETY

• what is anxiety


  the physiological arousal in the body
• how does it have a negative effect on ewt

  prevents us paying attention to important cues resulting in worse recall
• what does the tunnel theory of memory say

  a witnesses attention narrows to focus on a weapon because its a source of anxiety (weapon focus effect)
• Johnson and Scott (1976)


  - they led participants to believe they were going to be part of a lab study.

  - while seated in a waiting room participants heard an argument next door.

  - in the 'low anxiety' condition a man walked though the door carrying a greasy pen.

  - in the 'high anxiety' group saw a man with a bloody knife.
• results


  - 49% of the 'low anxiety' group identified the man

  - 33% of the 'high anxiety' group identified the man.
• Pickle study


  anxiety or surprise

  Ps were surprised at the raw chicken - better recall
• how does anxiety have a positive effect on recall?

  triggers our fight or flight which increases alertness + improves memory so we become more aware of cues
• Yuillie & Cutshall (1986)

  -13 witnesses interviewed after a real life shooting in a gun shop (owner injured and thief shot dead)

  -witnesses very accurate on detail after several months

  -leading questions had no effect

  -most distressed at the time gave the most accurate details
• results

  - most stressed - 88% accuracy

  - least stressed - 75% accuracy
• who proposed the U theory

  Yerkes + Dodson
• what did they say

  the relationship between emotional arousal and performance looks like an inverted U
• how did deffenbecher apply it to ewt

  after reaching + surpassing optimum arousal level, recall becomes worse and affects memory
• AO3: Weakness


  - ethical issues on the research area

  - creating anxiety in Ps is unethical, psychological harm

  - better options may be interviewing people who have already witnessed an event

  - no need to create a false situation and cause psychological stress
• AO3: Weakness


  - weapon focus effect may not be relevant as johnson and scott study may be relevant to surprise

  - focused on weapon due to surprise not shock

  - pickle study
• AO3: Weakness


  - field studies lack control of variables

  - recalling after an event witnesses may have had ped, effected memory or read news reports

  - PED + substitution explanation

  - extraneous variables may be responsible for inaccuracy of recall