EWT: Anxiety

• Anxiety has strong emotional and physical effects
• Anxiety can make eyewitness recall better or worse
• Why might anxiety have a negative effect on recall?

  Creates physiological arousal, preventing us paying attention to cues
• What is an approach to studying the negative effect of anxiety on eyewitness testimony?

  Looking at the effect of a weapon
• What effect does a weapon have on eyewitness testimony?

  Leads to a focus on the weapon, reducing a witness's recall
• Who studied the effects of a weapon on eyewitness testimony?

  Johnson and Scott
• What were the two conditions in Johnson and Scott's study into the effects of a weapon on eyewitness testimony?

  Low-anxiety and high-anxiety
• What was the low-anxiety condition in Johnson and Scott's study into the effects of a weapon on eyewitness testimony?

  Heard a casual conversation, then saw a man walk past carrying a pen
• What was the high-anxiety condition in Johnson and Scott's study into the effects of a weapon on eyewitness testimony?

  Heard a heated argument, then saw a man walk past carrying a bloody knife
• What percentage of participants who had seen the man carrying the pen in the low-anxiety condition were able to identify him?

  49%
• What percentage of participants who had seen the man carrying the bloody knife in the high-anxiety condition were able to identify him?

  33%
• What theory suggests that weapon focus as a result of anxiety can enhance people's memory for central events?

  Tunnel theory
• Why might might anxiety have a positive effect on recall?

  Fight or flight triggered, increasing alertness and memory
• What effect does a weapon focus have on eyewitness testimony?

  Negative
• Whose study suggested anxiety has a positive effect on recall?

  Yuille and Cutshall
• Whose study suggested anxiety has a negative effect on recall?

  Johnson and Scott
• How many months after the incident were witnesses interviewed in Yuille and Cutshall's study?

  4-5
• How many witnesses to the incident studied in Yuille and Cutshall's study took part?

  13
• What actual event did Yuille and Cutshall study?

  A shooting
• What percentage of participants who reported the highest levels of stress in Yuille and Cutshall's study were most accurate?

  88%
• What law states that performance will increase with stress, but only to a certain point, where it decreases drastically?

  Yerkes-Dodson law
• What is the Yerkes-Dodson law?

  Performance will increase with stress, but only to a certain point, where it decreases drastically
• How does the Yerkes-Dodson law explain contradictory findings into the effects of anxiety on eyewitness testimony?

  Recall accuracy will increase with anxiety, but only to a certain point where it will decrease drastically
• Who used the Yerkes-Dodson law to explain the contradictory findings into the effects of anxiety on eyewitness testimony?

  Deffenbacher
• What percentage of the high-anxiety group in Valentine and Mesout's study correctly identified the actor?

  17%
• What percentage of the low-anxiety group in Valentine and Mesout's study correctly identified the actor?

  75%
• What two groups were participants divided into in Valentine and Mesout's study?

  High-anxiety and low-anxiety
• What did participants have to do in Valentine and Mesout's study?

  Identify an actor encountered in a horror labyrinth