Factors affecting EWT: anxiety

Factors affecting EWT: anxiety

1. Anxiety has a negative effect on recall

   • Anxiety creates arousal which prevents us paying attention to important cues, so recall is worse.
   • Later, participants picked out the man form 50 photos. 49% participants who seen the man carrying the pen could identify him. However, participants who seen man holding knife was just 33%.
   • Low anxiety condition- man walks through holding pen with grease on his hand. High anxiety condition- man walks out room holding paper knife and covered in blood.
   • Johnson and Scott led participants to believe they were in as lab study. While seated in the waiting room, participants heard an accident next door.

2. Explaining the contradictory findings

   • Deffenbacher applied the Yerkes- Dodson law to EWT.
   • Lower levels of anxiety produce lower levels of recall accuracy, but memory becomes more accurate as level of anxiety increases.
   • However, comes a point where optimal level of anxiety is reached. This is there point of maximum accuracy.

3. Anxiety has a positive effect on recall

   • Yuille and Cutshall (1986) conducted a study of real life shooting in a gun shop. The shop owner shot a thief dead. There was 21 witnesses- 13 agreed to take part.
   • The witnesses were asked to rate how stressed they were feeling at the time using a 7- point scale
   • The interviews were held 4-5 months after the incident and were compared to the original police studies.
   • Those participants who reported highest levels of stress were most accurate.

4. Evaluation

   • Weapon focus effect may not be relevant- Pickel showed that it may be surprise and therefore tells us nothing about effects of anxiety.
   • Field studies sometimes lack control- researchers cant control what happens to witnesses between the crime and the interview.
   • Ethical issues- creating anxiety in lab studies may cause psychological harm.