AO1

• The weapon focus effect is when arousal causes the victim and witnesses to focus on more central details of the crime, such as the weapon, rather than peripheral details such as what the perpetrator looked like.
• Loftus and Palmer investigated whether anxiety impacts EWT.
• Loftus and Palmer


  Ppts were exposed to one of two conditions:

  1. overheard a discussion about a failed experiment, man left covered in grease and holding a pen
  2. overheard an argument with broken glass, man left covered in blood holding a knife
• Loftus and Palmer


  Ppts were then asked to identify the man from 50 photos. Those in condition 1 had less anxiety and more accurate identification, 49%, compared to those in condition 2 who had more anxiety and less accurate identification, 33%. This shows the weapon-focus effect and how anxiety negatively impacts the accuracy of EWT.
• Christianson & Hubinette: Anxiety improves recall


  They investigate 110 real life victims and bystanders from 21 different bank robberies. They found that victims gave a more accurate recall of description of the perpetrator compared to bystanders. This suggests that anxiety improves accuracy of EWT, contradicting the weapon-focus affect.
• Yerkes and Dodson: Explanation of Contradictory Findings


  Yerkes and Dodson explain the different impacts of anxiety on accuracy EWT found by Loftus & Palmer and Christianson & Hubinette through their Yerkes-Dodson law. They suggest that anxiety and performance increase together to a certain point, having a positive affect on accuracy on EWT as shown by Christianson and Hubinette, until anxiety gets too high and performance begins to decrease, having a negative affect on accuracy in EWT as shown by Loftus and Palmer.