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Updated for AQA 2025 Spec – Teaching from SEPTEMBER 2025 onwards

This resource is designed for teaching Anxiety as a Factor Affecting the Accuracy of Eyewitness Testimony (EWT) under the updated AQA A-Level Psychology (2025 Specification). The 2025 spec retains the study of anxiety as a key factor in EWT and explicitly requires students to understand contradictory findings and apply the Yerkes–Dodson Law.

If you’re looking for the 2019 specification version of this topic, please visit my shop.

What’s Included:

• Fully Editable Lesson Slides – Covers how anxiety influences memory recall, with clear explanations of the weapon focus effect, Yerkes–Dodson Law, and contrasting studies (Johnson & Scott, 1976; Yuille & Cutshall, 1986). Includes “Do Now” activities, “Think, Pair, Share” tasks, and embedded video links to bring the topic to life.

• Make it a Headline Task – Creative literacy-based activity where students summarise key research studies as punchy newspaper headlines for The Psychology Times. Great for engagement, retrieval, and literacy skills.

• Evaluation Worksheet – Builds AO3 skills through guided prompts and structured writing practice, helping students explore issues such as ecological validity, ethical concerns, demand characteristics, and reductionism.

• Evaluate It Task – A collaborative task where students categorise evaluation points as strengths, limitations, or both, then decide which would be most persuasive in a courtroom. Encourages deep thinking and discussion.

• Exam Practice Questions – Includes a 4-mark evaluation question and an AO2 application scenario (based on a fictional witness). Model answers are provided to support self-assessment and exam technique.

How This Resource Reflects the 2025 Specification Changes:

• Fully updated in line with AQA’s 2025 A-Level Psychology spec for the Memory topic

• Covers both positive and negative effects of anxiety on recall, including required research

• Explicit focus on the Yerkes–Dodson Law to explain contradictory findings

• Embedded AO1, AO2, and AO3 tasks to build exam skills and specification fluency

• Includes engaging and differentiated activities for classroom use or independent learning