An experimental examination of the effects of alcohol consumption and exposure to misleading postevent information on remembering a hypothetical rape scenario

Abstract

Summary We experimentally examined the effects of alcohol consumption and exposure to misleading postevent information on memory for a hypothetical interactive rape scenario. We used a 2 beverage (alcohol vs. tonic water) × 2 expectancy (told alcohol vs. told tonic) factorial design. Participants (N = 80) were randomly assigned to conditions. They consumed alcohol (mean blood alcohol content = 0.06%) or tonic water before engaging in the scenario. Alcohol expectancy was controlled by telling participants they were consuming alcohol or tonic water alone, irrespective of the actual beverage they were consuming. Approximately a week later, participants were exposed to a misleading postevent narrative and then recalled the scenario and took a recognition test. Participants who were told that they had consumed alcohol rather than tonic reported fewer correct details, but they were no more likely to report incorrect or misleading information. The confidence–accuracy relationship for control and misled items was similar across groups, and there was some evidence that metacognitive discrimination was better for participants who were told that they had consumed alcohol compared with those told they had tonic water. Implications for interviewing rape victims are discussed.

And one more for the road: Commentary on the Special Issue on alcohol and eyewitness memory

“…Both Altman et al () and Gawrylowicz et al () reported results in line with the adapted AMT. However, the findings of Flowe et al () did not support the adapted AMT and suggested that intoxicated individuals were able to process both salient and peripheral cues as well as individuals who were not intoxicated.…”

“…The reverse placebo group drank alcohol but were not expecting the detrimental effects associated with intoxication and, hence, were unaware that they needed to take measures to preserve their memory. Flowe et al () found mixed support. Although they found that participants who expected to drink alcohol did not recall the event more accurately, they found increased accuracy discrimination on the recognition test for these participants.…”

“…Like Gawrylowicz et al (), Flowe et al () used a fully balanced placebo design. Female participants underwent an interactive rape scenario either intoxicated or sober while thinking that they had consumed either alcohol or tonic.…”

“…In the recognition task, participants were tested on the information from the summary and gave confidence ratings for each piece of information. Flowe et al () found that moderate levels of alcohol intoxication (BAC 0.06%) did not lead to differences in the number of correct and incorrect details, in the susceptibility to incorporate the misleading information from the summary, and in the confidence–accuracy relationship. However, participants who believed that they had consumed alcohol were more accurate but provided less complete accounts, suggesting that they may have been attempting to compensate for possible memory impairments.…”

“…This Special Issue covers studies with an impressive range of experimental designs. Some studies ensured that the design was completely balanced by either including a reverse placebo condition (Flowe et al, ; Gawrylowicz, Scoboria, Teodorini, & Albery, ) or counterbalancing intoxicated, placebo, and sober conditions at both encoding and retrieval (Evans et al, ). Other studies opted to have more naturalistic settings by testing participants in bars (Altman, McQuiston, & Schreiber Compo, ; Sauerland, Broers, & Van Oorsouw, ) or simulated bars (Mindthoff, Hagsand, Schreiber Compo, & Evans, ).…”