ERIC Number: EJ1262819
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2019
Pages: 10
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0888-4080
EISSN: N/A
A Meta-Analysis of the Effects of Acute Alcohol Intoxication on Witness Recall
Jores, Theo; Colloff, Melissa F.; Kloft, Lilian; Smailes, Harriet; Flowe, Heather D.
Applied Cognitive Psychology, v33 n3 p334-343 May-Jun 2019
There is widespread belief in the legal system that alcohol impairs witness testimony. Nevertheless, most laboratory studies examining the effects of alcohol on witness testimony suggest that alcohol may affect the number of correct but not incorrect details recalled. However, it is difficult to draw conclusions because sample sizes, testing paradigms, and recall measures vary between individual studies. We conducted a meta-analysis to address this issue. We found alcohol intoxication had a significant and moderate sized effect on the number of correct details recalled (g = 0.40). The effect of alcohol on the number of incorrect details recalled was not significant. Further, the effect of alcohol on the recall of correct details was significantly moderated by multiple factors like intoxication level, the retention interval length between encoding and recall, and the types of questions asked (i.e., free recall vs. cued recall). We discuss the applied implications of the results.
Descriptors: Meta Analysis, Alcohol Abuse, Recall (Psychology), Memory, Court Litigation, Accuracy, Effect Size, Retention (Psychology), Intervals, Cognitive Processes
Wiley. Available from: John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 111 River Street, Hoboken, NJ 07030. Tel: 800-835-6770; e-mail: cs-journals@wiley.com; Web site: https://bibliotheek.ehb.be:2191/en-us
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research; Information Analyses
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A