8. EWT anxiety

what is anxiety

• a state of emotional (having worries, feeling tension) and physical (increased heart rate, sweating) arousal

• its a normal reaction to stressful situations, but can affect the accuracy and detail of EWT

research on effects of anxiety

1. it has a negative effect on recall (weapon focus)

2. it has a positive effect on recall

weapon focus procedure

johnson & scott

• participants believed they were a part of a lab study

• while in waiting room, those in low anxiety condition heard casual conversation in the next room and saw a man walk past them carrying a pen with grease on his hands

• others overheard a heated argument accompanied by the sound of breaking glass, and a man walked out the room holding a knife covered in blood (high anxiety condition)

findings and conclusion

participants later picked out man from set of 50 photos

• 49% who had seen man with pen could identify him

  33% who had seen man with knife could identify him

• tunnel theory of memory argues that people have enhanced memory for central events - weapon focus as a result of anxiety can have this affect

positive effect procedure

yuille & cutshall

• conducted study of an actual shooting in a gun shop in canada where the shop owner shot a thief dead

• 21 witnesses - 13 participated in the study

• they were interviewed 4-5 months after the incident and compared them with the original police interviews at the time

• accuracy was determined by the no. details recorded in each account

• witnesses were also asked how stressful they were at the time (on a 7 point scale) and whether they had emotional problems since (eg sleeplessness)

findings and conclusions

• witnesses were very accurate in their accounts and there was little change in the amount recalled or accuracy after 5 months

• participants who reported higher levels of stress were most accurate (88% compared to 75% for the less stressed group)

• suggests anxiety does not have a detrimental effect on the accuracy of eyewitness memory in a real world context and may even enhance it

explaining contradictory findings

• according to yerkes & dodson the relationship between emotional arousal and performance looks like an inverted U

continued

deffenbacher reviewed 21 studies of EWT and noted contradictory findings on the effects of anxiety, and used the yerkes-dodson law to explain findings

• when we witness a crime/accident we become emotionally (anxiety) and physiologically (fight or flight) aroused

• lower levels of anxiety/arousal produce lower levels of recall accuracy and then memory becomes more accurate as the level of anxiety/arousal increases

• however there is an optimal level of anxiety which is the point of maximum accuracy - any more arousal then recall suffers a drastic decline

evaluation

1. support for negative effects

2. support for positive effects (& counterpoint)

3. unusualness not anxiety

4. inverted u theory

support for negative effects

• anxiety negatively impacts the accuracy of recall

• research support on weapon focus where high levels of anxiety impair memory and recall ability especially in stressful situations

• supports idea that stress reduces eyewitness reliability in real world situations like crime scenes

support for positive effects

• anxiety can improve recall accuracy

• research support - suggests moderate to high anxiety can enhance memory likely due to heightened attention and alertness

• challenges view that anxiety always reduces accuracy implying that real life recall may differ from lab based findings

counterpoint

• other factors may influence accuracy not just anxiety

• lack of control over extraneous variables means findings may not be purely due to anxiety - closeness to crime

• suggests caution in interpreting anxietys role in eyewitness anxiety as real life recall is complex

unusualness not anxiety

• weapon focus effect may be due to unusualness rather than anxiety

• pickel 1998 conducted an experiment using scissors, a handgun, a wallet or a raw chicken in a hair salon (raw chicken was unusual but not threatening) - eyewitness accuracy was significantly poorer with high unusualness conditions (chicken and handgun) suggesting that it isnt anxiety affecting recall

• challenges assumption that anxiety impacts EWT, suggesting altnernative factors like context and expectation should be considered

inverted u theory

• may oversimplify relationship between anxiety and performance

• theory links anxiety to both increased and decreased recall but focuses mainly on physiological arousal, ignoring cognitive and emotional factors which also play a role in recall accuracy

• theory may need revision to better reflect real world eyewitness experiences, considering multiple factors affecting memory