Alcohol intoxication and memory for events: A snapshot of alcohol myopia in a real-world drinking scenario

Abstract

Alcohol typically has a detrimental impact on memory across a variety of encoding and retrieval conditions (e.g., Mintzer, 2007; Ray & Bates, 2006). No research has addressed alcohol's effect on memory for lengthy and interactive events and little has tested alcohol's effect on free recall. In this study 94 participants were randomly assigned to alcohol, placebo, or control groups and consumed drinks in a bar-lab setting while interacting with a "bartender". Immediately afterwards all participants freely recalled the bar interaction. Consistent with alcohol myopia theory, intoxicated participants only differed from placebo and control groups when recalling peripheral information. Expanding on the original hypervigilance hypothesis, placebo participants showed more conservative reporting behaviour than the alcohol or control groups by providing more uncertain and "don't know" responses. Thus, alcohol intoxication had confined effects on memory for events, supporting and extending current theories.

Alcohol and remembering a hypothetical sexual assault: Can people who were under the influence of alcohol during the event provide accurate testimony?

“…Consequently, intoxicated participants should report and accurately remember less peripheral information compared to sober participants. Schrieber Compo et al (2011) found this pattern, whereby intoxicated participants remembered fewer accurate peripheral details about an interaction they had with a bartender. We did not replicate these findings, however.…”

“…Schreiber Compo et al further theorized that participants who were actually intoxicated did not have the cognitive resources to compensate, and thus, were less likely to report 'I don't know' and were comparatively less accurate overall. In another study, Schreiber Compo et al (2011) examined whether 'don't know' responses varied in relation to alcohol intoxication (mean BrAC 0.08% versus mean BrAC 0.01%) when participants recalled what happened during a staged theft; in this study, however, 'don't know responses' did not vary depending on alcohol condition.…”

“…As a consequence, alcohol may have a smaller effect on memory for central compared to peripheral information. Several lines of work have tested this prediction.Schreiber Compo et al (2011) found that although intoxicated participants were as likely to accurately recall central information (e.g., bartender's hair color) as sober participants, they were less likely to accurately recall subjective and peripheral information ALCOHOL AND REMEMBERING SEXUAL ASSAULT 9 about their experience with the bartender (e.g., objects in the surrounding environment, such as a dartboard). Participants were tested during the same session; therefore, participants receiving alcohol were intoxicated during both encoding and retrieval.…”

“…In the first study, Schreiber Compo et al (2011) had participants consume either alcoholic or non-alcoholic beverages while interacting with a bartender in a lab setting. The alcohol group had a peak mean breathalyzed alcohol content (BrAC) of 0.08%.…”

Mind the Gap: The Key to Advancing the Science and Policy on Alcohol-Intoxicated Witnesses is to expand the Study Population and Bridge the Researcher-Practitioner Gap

“…The method in the study by Hagsand et al [9] is a good example of the most commonly used experimental procedure employed in laboratories in the UK, USA and Sweden with respect to this new emerging research topic. Similar methods were employed in other studies in the field [10][11][12][13][14][15][16]. The approximately 15 published studies on alcohol and witness memory have overall found no negative impact of alcohol on witnesses' memory.…”