Memory - anxiety

Question 1

what is anxiety

Answer 1

• state of emotional and physical arousal

Question 2

what is the positive effect of anxiety on recall

Answer 2

Yuille and Cutshall (1986)
- interviewed participants after an actual shooting
- accuracy was rated by how many details they could recall
- rated stress levels
- participants with high stress had 88% recall compared to less stressed group

Question 3

What is the negative effect of anxiety on recall

Answer 3

• weapon focus effect
  Johnson and Scott (1976)
• participants in a waiting room in a low anxiety condition, heard a normal conversation and a man walked out with a pen
• second condition they heard a heated argument and the man walked out with a bloody knife
• 49% who saw the man with a pen could identify him
• 33% who saw the man with the knife could identify him

Question 4

what is the inverted U hypotheses

Answer 4

• Yerkes- Dodson law
• performance increase with stress but only to a certain point

Question 5

what are the strengths of anxiety on eye witness testimony’s

Answer 5

Christianson and Hubinette (1993)
- interviewed 58 witness to robberies in Sweden
- some directly involved ( bank workers) and others indirectly (bystanders)
- direct victims had the best recall
- high anxiety were 75% accurate in recall

Question 6

what are the limitations of anxiety on eye witness testimony’s

Answer 6

Kerri Pickle (1998)
- used scissors, hand gun, wallet, chicken leg in a hair dressers
- EWT poor in high surprise conditions - handgun and chicken leg
- weapon effect distorts recall due to surprise