EWT: Anxiety Flashcards
(10 cards)
What is the Weapon Focus Effect in EWT research?
It’s when attention is drawn to a weapon, increasing anxiety and reducing recall of other details.
What did Johnson and Scott (1976) find about anxiety and recall?
High-anxiety participants (knife/bloody scene) were less accurate in identifying the man (33%) than low-anxiety ones (pen/grease, 49%).
What were the findings of Yuille and Cutshall (1986)?
Witnesses to a real shooting were highly accurate even months later (88% accuracy), suggesting anxiety may improve recall.
What is Tunnel Theory of Memory?
It proposes that attention narrows under stress to focus on a central detail, like a weapon.
What does the Yerkes-Dodson Law suggest about anxiety and performance?
Performance improves with arousal to an optimal point, then declines.
What is Inverted-U Theory?
It shows that moderate anxiety improves recall, but too much impairs it.
What did Pickel (1998) find about weapon focus and unusualness?
A raw chicken (unusual object) also reduced accuracy, suggesting weapon focus may be due to unusualness, not anxiety.
What evidence supports anxiety impairing recall?
Valentine and Mesout found that high-anxiety participants performed worse in identifying a target.
What evidence supports anxiety improving recall?
Christianson & Hübinette (1993) found real-life witnesses to bank robberies had better recall when anxious.
What methodological concern arises in anxiety studies?
Post-event discussions may confound accuracy; long delays between event and interview (e.g., in Christianson & Hübinette) affect reliability.
