the positive effect of anxiety on the accuracy of EWT was demonstrated by Yuille and Cutshall (1986), who followed up 13 eyewitnesses, 5 months after a real-life shooting at a shop in Canada
the researchers found that eyewitness accuracy was still high after this period, with an 11% higher accuracy of recall for those eyewitnesses who ranked their anxiety as 'high' (compared to 'low') at the time of the shooting and usin a 7-point anxiety scale
there were, however, small discrepancies over estimates of height, weight and clothing, this supports the idea that heightened anxiety draws our attention to external cue through the 'fight or flight' response, where such attention may have given us an evolutionary advantage by increasing our chances of escaping and survival
