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How elevated blood alcohol concentration level and identification format affect eyewitness memory: A field study
Author(s) -
Altman Christopher M.,
McQuiston Dawn E.,
Schreiber Compo Nadja
Publication year - 2019
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.3535
Subject(s) - eyewitness memory , psychology , affect (linguistics) , blood alcohol , recall , witness , task (project management) , identification (biology) , eyewitness identification , alcohol intoxication , cognitive psychology , social psychology , poison control , injury prevention , communication , medical emergency , medicine , computer science , data mining , botany , management , relation (database) , economics , biology , programming language
Summary Research shows that alcohol has a small and inconsistent effect on eyewitness recall and no effect on witnesses' lineup decisions. Much of this literature has tested participants with low‐to‐moderate blood alcohol concentration (BAC) levels, and no study has directly examined how identification procedure impacts intoxicated witnesses' decisions. In the present study, bar patrons' ( N = 132) BAC levels were recorded before participating in a task. Midway through the task, they were interrupted by an intruder. Participants then recalled the incident via a staged interview and attempted to identify the intruder from a target‐present or target‐absent showup or lineup. Although elevated BAC levels (high as 0.24%) reduced the quantity and quality of information provided, BAC had no effect on witnesses' identification decisions regardless of format. Results highlight the importance of testing witness memory across a broad BAC spectrum and provide evidence that alcohol does not affect witnesses' identification ability.