EWT: Anxiety

Define anxiety

a state of emotional and physical arousal. The emotions include having worried thoughts and feelings of tension. Physical changes include an increased heart rate and sweatiness. It is a normal reaction to stressful situations but can affect the accuracy and detail of EWT

What is weapon focus effect?

this is where in violent crimes, arousal may focus the witness on more central details of the attack (i.e weapon ) than the more peripheral details (i.e what the perpetrator looked like)

What is Yerkes-Dodson law bell curve?

• normal distribution

• small anxiety is required

Who did research into anxiety having a negative effect on recall?

Johnsons and Scott

What was the aim of Johnson and Scott’s study?

to investigate whether anxiety impacts the accuracy of EWT accounts

What was the method of Johnson and Scott’s study?

• ppts were told they were taking part in a lab research. Whilst in waiting room, ppts heard an argument in next room (2 conditions)

  • ‘low-anxiety’ condition, ppts saw a man carrying a pen with grease on his hands

  • ‘high-anxiety’ condition, ppts heard the sound of breaking glass followed by a man carrying a knife covered in blood

• the ppts were asked to pick out the man from a set of 50 photos

What were the results of Johnson and Scott’s study?

in the low-anxiety condition, 49% of ppts were able to correctly identify the correct man. In the high-anxiety condition, only 33% were able to correctly identify the correct man

What was the conclusion of Johnson and Scott’s study?

anxiety has a negative effect on performance due to the weapon focus effect

Who did research into anxiety having a positive effect on recall?

Yullie and Cutshall

What was the aim of Yuille and Cutshall’s study?

to investigate whether anxiety impacts the accuracy of EWT accounts

What was the method used in Yuille and Cutshall’s study?

• took advantage of real-life shooting in Canada

• shop owner shot a thief dead and there were 21 witnesses - 13 of which agreed to take part in the study

• interviews held 4-5 months after the incident and were compared with original police interviews at time of shooting

• number of details reported in each account determined accuracy

• witnesses were also asked to rate how stressed they has felt at the time of the incident, using a 7-point scale

What were the results of Yuille and Cutshall’s study?

the witnesses were very accurate in their accounts and there was little change in the amount or accuracy of information after 5 months, although some details such as colour of the items and age were less accurate

Ppts who reported the highest levels of stress were most accurate

What was the conclusion of Yuille and Cutshall’s study?

anxiety has a positive effect on performance

How is the fact there are inconsistent findings about the effect of anxiety on EWT a limitation? (+counter/development)

as it means that it lacks reliability and loses credibility

C: however, it can be argued that there was a variation in findings due to the weapon focus effect

Give an example of this limitation

for example, whilst Johnson and Scott’s research into anxiety had the conclusion that anxiety has a negative effect on performance, Yuille and Cutshall’s research had the conclusion that anxiety has a positive effect on performance

How is the fact that the research into the effects of anxiety on EWT is that it is a natural experiment? (+counter/development)

has mundane realism, meaning that the results obtained from the ppts were authentic as they were a reflection of what really happened

C: on the other hand, this can be seen to be a weakness as a natural experiment means that Yuille and Cutshall had less control over confounding and extraneous variables

Give an example of this strength

for instance, Yuille and Cutshall’s research took advantage of a real-life shooting in a gun shop in Canada, and based their conclusion of the effects of anxiety of EWT from the results

How is the fact that the research that anxiety has an effect on EWT is unethical? (+counter/development)

the study breaches the ethical guidelines they were taking part in research in a lab, but the conditions occurred whilst they were in the waiting room

C: additionally, issue of psychological harm. The ppts were subject to more psychological harm than their everyday life by seeing a bloodied knife

Give an example of this weakness

for example, in Johnson and Scott’s study, ppts were told that they were taking part in research in a lab, but the conditions occurred whilst they were in the waiting room

A disadvantage of the idea that anxiety has an effect on EWT is that the research that supports it is subjective? (+counter/development)

ppl can interpret numbers as different levels of stress, which has significant effect on the results and therefore the conclusion that anxiety has a positive effect

C: additionally, there is also the issue of social desirability as the eyewitnesses might lie that they were not anxious at all to make themselves seem brave