Premium
Intoxicated eyewitnesses: The effect of a fully balanced placebo design on event memory and metacognitive control
Author(s) -
Gawrylowicz Julie,
Scoboria Alan,
Teodorini Rachel,
Albery Ian P.
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
applied cognitive psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.719
H-Index - 100
eISSN - 1099-0720
pISSN - 0888-4080
DOI - 10.1002/acp.3504
Subject(s) - psychology , cued recall , recall , placebo , free recall , alcohol , metacognition , developmental psychology , cognitive psychology , social psychology , cognition , psychiatry , medicine , alternative medicine , pathology , biochemistry , chemistry
Summary 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.