Role of Anxiety on EWT Flashcards
(8 cards)
AO1 role of anxiety on ewt
Some psychologists have argued that anxiety has a negative effect on EWT. Johnson and Scott created a low anxiety condition where participants heard a conversation and a man walk past them carrying a pen with grease. In the high anxiety condition, participants overheard a heated argument, accompanied by the sound of breaking glass. A man walked out holding a knife covered in blood. The participants later picked out the man from a set of 50 photos, 49% from the low anxiety and 33% from the high anxiety condition could correctly identify the man. The Weapon Focus Effect says a weapon focuses all of our attention on that.
Other people suggest that anxiety has a positive effect on recall. Yuille and Cutshall conducted a study of an actual shooting. Witnesses were interviewed 4-5 months after and were compared with the original police interviews. They were also asked to rate how stressed they had felt at the time of the incident and whether they had experienced emotional problems since. Those participants who reported the highest anxiety were most accurate in what they recalled 5 months later. This suggests that anxiety does not have a detrimental effect on the accuracy of EWT.
Deffenbaucher reviewed 21 studies and used the Yerkes-Dodson law to explain findings. He concluded that When we witness a crime, we become more emotionally and physiologically aroused which increases our EWT ability. Once this has reached an optimum level of anxiety, any more arousal will lead to a drastic decline in EWT ability.
AO3 (1) role of anxiety on ewt
P: One strength of research that has concluded anxiety has a positive effect on EWT is that there is supporting evidence.
E: Christianson and Hubinette found that witnesses to real-life violent crimes, such as bank robberies, had more accurate and detailed recall than those who experienced lower levels of anxiety.
E: This is a strength because it further supports the idea that anxiety is a beneficial factor for eyewitness testimony.
C: However, there were issues with the methodology, as the study was naturalistic and lacked control over extraneous variables, such as the participants’ prior experiences or level of trauma.
C: Despite this, the use of real-life events increases the ecological validity of the findings, supporting the idea that anxiety can enhance the accuracy of eyewitness testimony in real-world settings.
AO3 (2) role of anxiety on ewt
P: One weakness of research that has concluded anxiety has a negative effect on EWT is that Johnson and Scott deceived participants.
E: Johnson and Scott told the participants that they were in a waiting room and were going to be brought to a study after. Little did they know that what they were subjected to then was the study.
E: This is a weakness because it raises ethical concerns, particularly around informed consent and the potential for psychological harm.
C: However, one could argue that this deception was necessary in order to prove cause and effect. If the participants were prepared for a study, they would have been likely to show demand characteristics because they might try to guess the aim and alter their behaviour, reducing the validity of the findings.
C: Despite this, the ethical issues remain significant, as the participants were exposed to potentially distressing situations without proper consent, which questions whether the research should have been carried out in that way.
AO3 (3) role of anxiety on ewt
P: One limitation of the conclusion by Deffenbacher is that there is contradictory evidence.
E: Fazey and Hardy instead proposed the Catastrophe Theory, which states that anxiety improves recall up to a point. The Catastrophe Theory concludes that increases in levels of cognitive anxiety will help recall if somatic anxiety is low. However, if there are high levels of cognitive anxiety and a continuous increase in somatic anxiety/physiological arousal, then performance can suddenly deteriorate.
E: This is a weakness because it challenges the inverted-U model used by Deffenbacher, suggesting that the relationship between anxiety and recall is more complex and not always gradual.
C: However, studies into this theory have only been done on things such as sports, which perhaps do not represent the depth and breadth of the anxiety-triggering situations we may experience (such as shootings).
C: Despite this, the Catastrophe Theory still highlights limitations in Deffenbacher’s model, suggesting that conclusions about anxiety and EWT may need to consider different types and intensities of stress to be fully accurate.
what is the Yerkes-Dodsen effect and what does it show
The Yerkes-Dodson effect, is the observation that arousal has a negative effect on performance (such as memory recall) when it is very LOW or very HIGH, but moderate levels are actually beneficial. This is described as an inverted U-shape curve.
The Yerkes-Dodson effect can be used to explain errors made by eyewitnesses, particularly when recalling a violent crime. In such cases it is likely that the witness was in a high state of arousal during the crime and therefore their performance in recalling
details is affected negatively.
what is the weapon focus effect
Loftus argues that anxiety is most problematic for later recall when a crime involves a weapon. Research suggests that the anxiety of seeing a weapon focuses all of your attention of the central details (the weapon itself) which means you are less able to recall the peripheral details such as what else was going on, what the perpetrator looked like. This effect is therefore known as the Weapon focus effect.
strengths of the role of anxiety on EWT
applications - real world application like police proceeding with extreme caution when pursuing lines of enquiry
limitations of role of anxiety in EWT
reliability and artificiality of research - Loftus’ research was conducted in a lab environment
internal validity - weapon focus effect may not cause anxiety as it may be confused for testing surprise instead in Loftus’ experiments
