Names/ studies

• Yerkes-Dodson Law: an increase in arousal improves performance but only up to a point. Once arousal has passed a critical point called the optimum, performance tends to decline. A possible interpretation of the research on violence distraction is that witnessing violence raises witness' arousal level past optimum, leading to poorer memory performance
• Parker et al: Interviewed people who had been affected by destruction wrought by Hurricane Andrew in US 1992

  Defined anxiety as amount of destruction to their homes - more destruction = more anxious

  best recall - those with some destruction - medium level of stress

  worst recall - worst destruction