Anxiety (ET)

• Anxiety:

  • An emotional state where we fear that something bad is going to happen.
• Anxiety Having A Negative Effect On Recall:

  • Anxiety creates physiological arousal in the body which prevents us paying attention to important cues.
  • Looks at weapons focus effect - causes anxiety.
• Anxiety Having A Negative Effect On Recall:

  Procedure: Johnson and Scott

  • Participants thought they were taking part in a lab experiment.
  • Condition 1 - the participants heard a causal conversation next door and then saw a man walk past them carrying a pen with grease on his hands (low-anxiety).
  • Condition 2 - the participants heard a heated argument then heard the sound of glass breaking. They then saw a man walk past holding a knife with blood on his hands (high-anxiety).
• Anxiety Having A Negative Effect On Recall:

  Johnson and Scott - Findings

  • The participants later were asked to pick the man’s face out from a set of 50 photos.
  • 49% in condition 1 could identify him while only 33% could in condition 2.
  • Tunnel theory of memory argues that people have enhanced memory for central events. Weapons focus as a result of anxiety can have this effect.
• Anxiety Having A Positive Effect On Recall:

  • Witnessing a stressful event creates anxiety through physiological arousal within the body. Triggers the fight or flight which increases alertness.
  • May improve memory for the event as we become more aware of cues in the situation.
• Anxiety Having A Positive Effect On Recall:

  Procedure: Yuille and Cutshall

  • Conducted a study on an actual shooting in Canada.
  • The shop owners shot a thief dead.
  • There were 21 witnesses - 13 were involved in the study.
  • They were interviewed 4-5 months after the incident. These interviews were compared to the original police interviews at the time of the shooting.
  • Accuracy determined by the number of details given in each account.
  • They were also asked to rate how stressed they felt (7 point scale) and if they had any emotional problems since (sleeplessness).
• Anxiety Having A Positive Effect On Recall:

  Yuille and Cutshall - Findings

  • Witnesses gave very accurate details in their accounts and there was little change in the amount recalled after 5 months.
  • Those who had higher stress levels were more accurate.
  • Suggests that anxiety doesn‘t have a detrimental effect on the accuracy of eyewitnesses memory in a real-world context and may even enhance it.