factors affecting accuracy of ewt anxiety 1

Question 1

relationship between emotional arousal and accuracy of ewt

Answer 1

deffenbacher was one of the first to investigate link between anxiety and ewt, her reviewed 21 studies and found accuracy is poor when emotional arousal is high or low but better when moderate

Question 2

johnson and scott research procedure

Answer 2

aim: to investigate effect of anxiety levels on accuracy of eyewitness t
lab study asked pts to wait outside room before it began
cond 1: heard what they believed to be an amicable discussion ab equipment failure, after a man came out with greasy hands holding a pen
cond 2: pts heard a hostile discussion followed by sound of breaking glass and overturned furniture
man then emerged from lab with knife covered in blood
all pts then asked to identify man with pen/knife from 50 photos

Question 3

johnson and scott findings

Answer 3

those who witnessed the man holding a pen correctly identified the target 49% of the time, compard to those who witnessed the man holding the knife, correctly indicating the target 33% of time

Question 4

johnson and scott conclusions

Answer 4

loftus believed the anxiety caused by the weapon narrowed the focus of attention for the witness and took attention away from the face of the man, making their ewt recall less detailed and less accurate. the knife became the central detail and was what the pts focused on, the man’s face became peripheral detail so unlikely it was remembered accurately

Question 5

limitation - ethics

Answer 5

p: research can be critiscised as unethical
e: eg pts in condition 2 witnessed a disturbing scene, confedarate leaving office holding blood stained knife
t: can caused psychological harm

Question 6

limitation: ce

Answer 6

P: research has contradicted loftus’ conclusion
e: christian and hubinette studied recall of witnesses to real bank robberies, found that increased arousal led to improvements in accuracy of recall
t: lowers validity