investigate the reliability of ewt in a real life environment.
V + M - sample/procedure.
56 participants who volunteered to do 3 questionnaires for a reduced ticket price to enter London dungeons. questionnaires measured trait anxiety inventory (tai), state anxiety inventory (sai) and a memory questionnaire. they were asked to identify 'scary' person from a group of 9 photos matched to the actor.
V + M - findings.
sai score was higher than tai score - shows labyrinth was rated as anxiety inducing. higher sai score = less recall. those with high sai (compared to median) only identified 17% of the time than 75% of those under the sai median.
V + M - conclusion.
reliability of identifying correctly is impacted by anxiety due to an increase in physiological arousal.
evaluate in terms of strengths.
g - partly random as did not plan who was going to dungeon. a - apply to only using ewt when not stressful. v - ecological validity as field and they did not know scary person was to be there.
evaluate in terms of weaknesses.
g - volunteer sample/price reduction. r - lack of control due to field. v - lack of control over extraneous variables and personality. lack of validity due to being self report - sdb. e - deception!
