Memory: Anxiety sample full marked essay
Outline and evaluate research into the effects ofanxiety on the accuracy of eyewitness testimony.Anxiety is an emotional and physical state includingemotions of feeling worried and feeling tense in an anxiety-induced situation. physical changesthat may occur include sweating, shallow breathing and an increased heart rate. Thisstate of feeling may interfere with the act of recalling information if you are involved in eyewitnesstestimony. It is shown through research that anxiety has a negative, as well as a positiveeffect on recall, both of these, are shown in experiments conducted by Johnson and Scott and Yuilleand Cutshall. Johnson and Scott conducted a lab experiment where participants wereseparated into two conditions. the first condition involved participants being in a low anxietysituation where they overheard a normal conversation happening in the other room then sawa man walk out with greasy hands whilst holding a pen. In condition two (high anxiety condition),the participants overheard a ‘heated’ argument and the sound of breaking glass then sawa man walk out covered in blood whilst holding a bloody knife. Later on, the participantspicked out the man they thought they saw from a set of 50 photos, 49% who saw the man carrying thepen managed to identify him and 33% who saw the man carrying the bloody knife managedto identify him. This shows that the weapon focus effect affects the recall rate in eyewitnesstestimony. On the other hand, Yuille and Cutshall looked at how anxiety is a positive effecton recall using the ‘fight or flight response’. They conducted a study of an actual shootingin a gun shop in Vancouver, Canada.The shop owner shot the thief dead - there were 21witnesses at the scene, 13 of which took part in the study. they interviewed them 4-5 monthslater after the incident and compared the interview they conducted to the police interviewsthat happened right after the incident. The witnesses were also asked to measure their stresslevels on a 7-point scale and state whether they have had emotional problems since the incident.Yuille and Cutshall discovered that there was very little change in the amount they recalledcomparing to the police interview although some slight details were discovered such as age, heightand weight estimates. the participants who reported higher levels of stress were most accurate(88% compared to 75% - the less stressed group). This shows that anxiety actuallycan have a positive effect on the recall rate of a stressful situation.A strength of the research into the positive effectsof anxiety on recall is that the research conducted shows a positive effect on how anxiety can help recallwithin an investigation. Evidence for this comes from Yuille and Cutshall’s study where a ‘real-lifeshooting’ was conducted. This evidence shows the reliability of this study and how it can be appliedin day-to-day situations. 88% of participants who were more stressed had a better recall rate showingthat actually psychological stress and anxiety during an anxious situation can actually improve recall.This makes the study reliable and since these findings can be replicated in another conditionedstudy, therefore has external validity.A limitation of the research into the negative effectsof anxiety on recall is that the research is unethical. Evidence for this is shown in Johnson’sand Scott’s study where the participants see a man walk out of the room they were told to wait outsideof, with a bloody knife. Findings had shown that 33% of participants were more anxious with this condition.This is a limitation because the participants were deceived to believe this was a legitimateexperiment causing significant psychological harm to the participants. This would’vecaused the participants to have psychological issues later on causing serious problem and effectslater on outside the study. This is a limitation because it shows the significance of ethics in anexperiment and how important it is to stick to the BPS code of ethics.Another limitation of the research into anxiety isthat Johnson and Scott may not have tested anxiety and focused on the unusualness. Evidence for thiscomes from the fact that most participants focused on the weapon because they were more surprised thanscared. Pickell had conducted an experiment
- / 1