Interviewing intoxicated witnesses: Memory performance in theory and practice

Alcohol use is frequently involved in crime, making it crucial to understand the role of alcohol in facial recognition to maximize correct perpetrator identifications. Although the majority of the alcohol and face recognition research has investigated recognition with retrospective confidence judgments, we examined the effects of alcohol intoxication on face recognition with prospective metacognitive judgments. Participants (N = 54 university students without a history of hazardous alcohol/substance use) consumed either alcohol (mean breath alcohol concentration of 0.06 at pretest and 0.07 at post-test) or a non-alcoholic placebo drink. Participants then studied unfamiliar male and female faces and made judgments of learning (JOLs) for each face (i.e., predicted the likelihood of recognizing that face on a future memory test). After a brief distractor task, participants completed an old-new recognition test on which they attempted to distinguish the studied faces from new faces. It was found that the alcohol manipulation had minimal effect on face recognition performance or judgments of learning. Our results suggest that theory-based cues about the effects of alcohol might play a greater role in retrospective judgments than prospective judgments. Although not a primary focus of the study, face recognition was better for male faces than female faces, and this occurred for both female and male participants.Limitations and implications of the research are discussed.

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 88%

No evidence that alcohol intoxication impairs judgments of learning in face recognition

Monds

Kloft

Sauer

et al. 2019

“…In other words, the present results indicate that different effects of alcohol at different BAC levels may have quite different consequences for how attacking/rejecting the primary aggressor involved in interpersonal violence is perceived. This may possibly be related to that alcohol at low to moderate BAC levels is stimulating, activating, and generally only has a subtle effect on cognition and in higher BAC levels sedating with more comprehensive negative effects on cognition (Hildebrand Karlén, ; Zoethout et al, ). To fully understand the implications of the present (nonlinear) results, further studies are needed.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The model encompasses two processes that are both altered in favor of increasing liability to use heuristics during intoxication, both through disrupting the automatic process of appraisal and through decreasing the capacity to maintain consciously directed attention (here, appraisal refers to the process of categorizing events as beneficial, neutral, or harmful/stressful). Hence, the model postulates that even without distractions, alcohol limits the depth and scope of information processing, which has been supported by research on intoxicated witnesses to interpersonal violence (see Hildebrand Karlén, ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 92%

Alcohol intoxicated witnesses' interpretation of social behavior in intimate partner violence

Karlén

Bagge

Fahlke

et al. 2018

Self Cite

Alcohol intoxication affects social information processing, though research is scarce regarding how alcohol affected eyewitnesses' perception of social interaction within an applied forensic context. In the present study, the effects of alcohol intoxication on eyewitnesses' perception of interaction in intimate partner violence (IPV) were investigated. The participants (n = 152) were randomized to an experimental (alcohol) or control group (juice). After consumption, they viewed a filmed IPV scenario where both interacting parties were confrontational. Afterwards, they rated the involved parties' behavior. Several behaviors were perceived in a similar manner by intoxicated and sober participants, but intoxicated participants perceived both parties' attacking behaviors and some of the man's prosocial behaviors differently than sober participants. Hence, alcohol affected some, but not all, kinds of social behaviors investigated in the present study. This would be of interest to legal praxis and to future studies on intoxicated witnesses to interpersonal violence.

“…Research examining the impact of alcohol on eyewitness recall has provided equivocal evidence—with some studies claiming that the inebriated are less reliable witnesses than those sober and other studies showing no alcohol‐related memory deficits (see Hildebrand Karlén, , for a review of related literature). The majority of lab‐based studies have found that alcohol intoxication does not affect recall accuracy (Crossland, Kneller, & Wilcock, ; Hagsand, Roos af Hjelmsäter, Granhag, Fahlke, & Söderpalm Gordh, , ; Hildebrand Karlén, Roos af Hjelmsäter, Fahlke, Granhag, & Söderpalm Gordh, , ; La Rooy, Nicol, & Terry, ; Schreiber Compo et al, ).…”

Section: Alcohol and Eyewitness Event Recallmentioning

confidence: 99%

Intoxicated eyewitnesses: The effect of a fully balanced placebo design on event memory and metacognitive control

Gawrylowicz

Scoboria

Teodorini

et al. 2018

Few studies have examined the impact of alcohol on metacognition for witnessed events. We used a 2 × 2 balanced placebo design, where mock witnesses expected and drank alcohol, did not expect but drank alcohol, did not expect nor drank alcohol, or expected but did not drink alcohol. Participants watched a mock crime in a bar-lab, followed by free recall and a cued-recall test with or without the option to reply "don't know" (DK). Intoxicated mock witnesses' free recall was less complete but not less accurate. During cued-recall, alcohol led to lower accuracy, and reverse placebo participants gave more erroneous and fewer correct responses. Permitting and clarifying DK responses was associated with fewer errors and more correct responses for sober individuals; and intoxicated witnesses were less likely to opt out of erroneous responding to unanswerable questions. Our findings highlight the practical and theoretical importance of examining pharmacological effects of alcohol and expectancies in real-life settings.