Factors affecting EWT- Anxiety

Anxiety: - effect

Johnson + Scott (1976):

Waiting room - 2 conditions high + low anxiety

Low anxiety - heard argument, man ran with greasy pen

High anxiety - heard glass break, man ran with bloody paper knife

Ppts asked to identify man in 50 photos

Found lower accuracy in.... condition due to the... as ppts eye movements showed attention was narrowed onto... rather than mans face

high anxiety, weapon focus effect, weapon

Weapon focus effect (WFE):

This reduces ability to... as... due to... narrows...

Attention = Sensory -> STM, no attention = forgetting

recall details, high anxiety, presence of weapon, attention onto weapon

Anxiety: + effect

Christianson + Hubinette:

EW observed real bank robberies in Sweden

58 witnesses in 2 conditions: high anxiety (...) or low anxiety (...)

Interviewed 4-15 months after robbery

Found ... in ... .. condition had higher recall - better than 75%

due to their...

victims, bystanders, victims, high anxiety, fight or flight response

Fight or flight:

High anxiety increases alertness, ... and improves ...

Adaptive advantage- important to remember ... important events to recall what you did last time to ...

alertness, attention, memory, emotionally, respond

Yerkes-Dodson Law:

Anxiety/arousal can have a positive effect on accuracy only if ... levels.

Extreme anxiety leads to decreased .../...

optimal, accuracy, performance

AO3-Evaluation: strength

Christianson + Hubinette's research - good external validity

Conducted on real life event - genuine anxiety + consequences to testimonies

This means results = accurate insight

Therefore, more confident in the ... of Christianson + Hubinette's findings

validity

AO3-Evaluation: Limitation

Issues w lack of control over extraneous variables

C + H interviewed 4-15 months after event

Post event discussion + media reports influence recall accuracy

Therefore, difficult to determine how much accuracy of testimonies are explained by differences in...

anxiety

AO3-Evaluation: limitation

WFE due to surprise rather than anxiety

Pickel (1998): Thief entered hairdressing salon w scissors, gun, wallet + raw chicken. (say high/low threat + surprise)

Identification of thief = less accurate in high surprise conditions (gun + raw chicken) rather than threat

Therefore suggests reduced accuracy due to unusualness rather than...

high arousal levels

Pickel (1998): threat + surprise

Scissors: high/low...

Gun: high/high...

Wallet: low/low...

Raw chicken: low/high...

high threat low surprise, high threat high surprise, low threat low surprise, low threat high surprise

AO3-Evaluation: limitation

Conflicting evidence for WFE

Ppts viewed stimuli - man- robbery holding gun/phone

Eye movements recorded - see if attention shifts in gun condition

Found ppts attention focused predominately on man, less on gun/phone

Contradicts WFE- presence of weapon didn't decrease recall so questions ... of WFE

validity

AO3-Evaluation: limitation

A key extraneous variable unaccounted in many research studies - emotional sensitivity

Bothwell (1987): ppts tested for personality characteristics - labelled either neurotic (become more anxious) or stable (less emotionally sensitive)

Found stable = increased accuracy w higher stress levels, neurotics = opposite

This shows effects of anxiety differ - individual's emotional sensitivity

Therefore, individual differences - key role. J+S + C+H fail to account for this - questions how ... we can apply findings, limiting ...

accurately, usefulness