Rationale

Co-witness discussion is common and often witnesses are under the influence of alcohol. As such, it is important to understand how such factors may influence eyewitness testimony.

Objectives

We combined a co-witness memory paradigm with an alcohol administration paradigm to examine the influence of alcohol and dyadic discussion on remembering a mock crime.

Methods

Intoxicated and sober dyads discussed a previously seen video, whilst in a control condition sober and intoxicated individuals recalled the event on their own. Unknown to the dyads, each discussion partner saw a different version of the video including unique details not present in the other video version. All participants then engaged in a second individual recall attempt.

Results

Dyads were more likely to recall misleading details in their individual recall attempts compared to the control group. Intoxicated and sober dyads were equally likely to report misleading information. Alcohol intoxication had no negative impact on individuals’ ability to correctly identify the source of their responses. Intoxicated participants recalled fewer details under free recall conditions. Alcohol had a detrimental effect on participants’ confidence in their free recall accounts.

Conclusions

Possible alcohol-related and social-cognitive mechanisms are discussed which may contribute to the current findings as well as applied implications for interviewing intoxicated witnesses.

中文翻译：

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醉酒的共同见证：酒精和二元讨论对记忆整合和事件回忆的影响

基本原理

共同证人的讨论很常见，而且证人经常受到酒精的影响。因此，了解这些因素如何影响目击证人的证词很重要。

目标

我们将共同见证记忆范式与酒精管理范式相结合，以检查酒精和二元讨论对记住模拟犯罪的影响。

方法

醉酒和清醒的二人讨论了之前看过的视频，而在控制条件下，清醒和醉酒的人会自己回忆起事件。两人都不知道，每个讨论伙伴都看到了视频的不同版本，其中包括其他视频版本中没有的独特细节。然后所有参与者进行了第二次个人回忆尝试。

结果

与对照组相比，Dyads 更有可能在他们的个人回忆尝试中回忆起误导性的细节。陶醉和清醒的二人同样有可能报告误导性信息。酒精中毒对个人正确识别其反应来源的能力没有负面影响。陶醉的参与者在自由回忆条件下回忆的细节较少。酒精对参与者对其自由回忆帐户的信心产生了不利影响。

结论

讨论了可能的酒精相关和社会认知机制，这些机制可能有助于当前的调查结果以及对采访醉酒证人的应用影响。