EWT- anxiety Flashcards
(14 cards)
what is meant by anxiety?
a state of emotional and physical arousal which has a number of physiological and psychological effects- including on memory
how does anxiety effect memory?
many events witnessed by eye witnesses can cause them anxiety
sometimes anxiety seems to improve memory and other times it makes it less accurate
describe Johnson and Scott’s study which supports that anxiety decreases accuracy of EWT?
ppts waiting in a waiting room believing they are about to take part in a lab study
group 1 (low anxiety group) overheard a discussion and a man exiting holding a pen with grease on hands
group 2 (high anxiety) overheard heated argument and man exited with grease on his hands
ppts then had to pick the man from 50 photos
what were the findings of Johnson and Scott’s study?
low anxiety condition 49% correctly identified man
high anxiety 33%
suggests anxiety has a negative effect on recall
what theory can help explain the findings of Johnson and Scott?
Tunnel theory (aka weapon focus) suggests that because a weapon is present, the attention of the ppt gets focused on weapon rather than man so reduces anxiety
how did Pickel criticise the findings of Johnson and Scott?
repeated study using diff objects
ppts watched video of an incident in a hairdressing salon- a man demanded money from the receptionist, the man was holding diff things in diff cond
recall was worse in the handgun AND raw chicken conditions
Pickel suggested that it was the element of surprise, rather than anxiety that decreased accuracy
how could we say Pickel’s study lacked external validity more than Johnson and Scott’s study and this could affect how generalisable results are?
Pickel’s study was a video
the handgun in the video will have created much less anxiety than the bloody knife in Johnson and Scott- ppts wouldve thought the situation was real in J and S
so can’t fully compare or conclude like Pickel tried to do
what is the research to suggest that anxiety increases accuracy of EWT?
Yuille and Cutshall real life witness to gun shop robbery
after 5 months they were asked to recall events and also asked to indicate how stressed they were at time of incident on a 7 point scale
what were the findings of Yuille and Cutshall?
-they were able to recall in detail even after 5 months
-high level or agreement between witnesses
-those who reported the highest level of stress were most accurate
why can’t we fully rely on Yuille and Cutshall’s study to show how anxiety increases accuracy of recall?
relies on retrospective data about how stressed they felt at the time -may be distorted
what can help explain the contradictory findings of the effects of anxiety on EWT?
Inverted U curve
states that arousal (level of anxiety) increases performance (memory) up to a certain point, called the optimum, then once anxiety gets too high then performance starts to decrease
what is a problem of lab studies into effects of anxiety on EWT and how has this been overcome?
they usually only test high and low anxiety groups- rarely a moderate anxiety group
Parker et al interviewed people who had been affected by Hurricane Andrew in America
researchers defined anxiety as how much damage was caused to ppts homes
researchers found there was a link between level of recall and amount of anxiety experienced
MODERATE ANXIETY GROUP HAD BEST RECALL
this supports inverted U-curve
explain how inverted U-curve can be used to explain contradictory findings of Johnson and Scott and Yuille and Cutshall?
J and S- real life situation could have caused anxiety to pass optimum level so recall worse
Y and C- anxiety could have reached optimum level so better recall
how can knowledge on fight or flight be used to explain how anxiety might increase accuracy of EWT?
dilated pupils in high anxiety- allows you to see more and taken in surroundings
increased heart rate and breathing rate increases the blood flow to the brain and therefore oxygen supply to brain- increases alertness and may increase memory
