Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Recollections of a robbery

Effects of arousal and alcohol upon recall and person identification

  • Articles
  • Published:
Law and Human Behavior

Abstract

One week after committing a simulated robbery while intoxicated or sober, each of 142 subjects recalled the event within a “cognitive interview”. In an initial exploratory experiment, alcohol consumption reduced the accuracy of recall of a variety of types of information, in particular, information about persons. In the second experiment, person identification suffered following the consumption of alcohol, but only when arousal was low. Higher levels of arousal appeared instead to minimize the negative impact of alcohol upon encoding and recall. Second, whereas the recollections by subjects of what they saw during the crime were not impaired by alcohol consumption, their recollections of what they did were impaired. Both experiments examined the effects of arousal upon the subjects' recalls, and Experiment 2 tested the hypothesis that increased arousal serves to reduce attention to peripheral sources of information. This hypothesis was supported because the identification of persons central to the crime benefited from increased arousal but the identification of persons peripheral to the crime did not. A similar hypothesis about the effects of alcohol received only mixed support because the subjects' behaviors reflected “alcohol myopia” but their identifications of target persons did not. Finally, manipulations at the time of retrieval of the subjects' beliefs about how much alcohol had been consumed also altered accuracy of recall.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Anderson, R. C., & Pichert, J. W. (1978). Recall of previously unrecallable information following a shift in perspective.Journal of Verbal Learning and Verbal Behavior,17, 1–12.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Birnbaum, I. M., & Parker, E. S. (1977). Acute effects of alcohol on storage and retrieval. In I. M. Birnbaum & E. S. Parker (Eds.).Alcohol and human memory (pp. 99–108). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bothwell, R. K., Deffenbacher, K. A., & Brigham, J. C. (1987). Correlation of eyewitness accuracy and confidence: the optimality hypothesis revisited.Journal of Applied Psychology, 72, 691–695.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Carpenter, J. A. (1962). Effect of alcohol on some psychological processes: A critical review with special reference to automobile driving skill.Quarterly Journal of Studies on Alcohol, 23, 274–314.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Christianson, S-A., & Loftus, E. F. (1987). Memory for traumatic events.Applied Cognitive Psychology, 1, 225–239.

    Google Scholar 

  • Craik, F. I. M. (1977). Similarities between the effects of aging and alcoholic intoxication on memory performance, construed within a “levels of processing” framework. In I. M. Birnbaum & E. S. Parker (Eds.),Alcohol and human memory (pp. 9–22). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cutler, B. L., Penrod, S. D., & Martens, T. K. (1987). The reliability of eyewitness identification: The role of system and estimator variables.Law and Human Behavior, 11, 233–258.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Deffenbacher, K. A. (1983). The influence of arousal on reliability of testimony. In S. M. A. Lloyd-Bostock & B. R. Clifford (Eds.).Evaluating witness evidence: Recent psychological research and new perspectives (pp. 235–251). Chichester: Wiley.

    Google Scholar 

  • Easterbrook, J. A. (1959). The effect of emotion on cue utilization and the organization of behavior.Psychological Review, 66, 183–201.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Fisher, R. P., Geiselman, R. E. & Amador, M. (1989). Field test of the cognitive interview: Enhancing the recollection of actual witnesses and victims of crime.Journal of Applied Psychology, 74, 722–727.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Geiselman, R. E. (1988). Improving eyewitness memory through mental reinstatement in context. In G. M. Davies & D. M. Thomson (Eds.),Memory in context: Context in memory. Chichester: Wiley.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gerson, L. W. (1978). Alcohol-related acts of violence: Who was drinking and where the acts occurred.Journal of Studies on Alcohol, 39, 1294–1296.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Hastroudi, S., Parker, E. S., DiLisi, L. E., & Wyatt, R. J. (1983). On elaboration and alcohol.Journal of Verbal Learning and Verbal Behavior, 22, 164–173.

    Google Scholar 

  • Jones, B. M. (1973). Memory impairment on the ascending and descending limbs of the blood alcohol curve.Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 82, 24–32.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Kassin, S. M. (1985). Eyewitness identification: Retrospective self-awareness and the accuracyconfidence correlation.Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 49, 878–893.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Krafka, C., & Penrod, S. (1985). Reinstatement of context in a field experiment on eyewitness identification.Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 49, 58–69.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Keuhn, L. L. (1974). Looking down a gun barrel: Person perception and violent crime.Perceptual and Motor Skills, 39, 1159–1164.

    Google Scholar 

  • Levine, J. M., Kramer, G. G., & Levine, E. N. (1975). Effects of alcohol on human performance: An integration of research findings based on an abilities classification.Journal of Applied Psychology, 60, 285–293.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Loftus, E. F., & Burns, T. E. (1982). Mental shock can produce retrograde amnesia.Memory and Cognition, 10, 318–323.

    Google Scholar 

  • Loftus, E. F., & Christianson, S.-A. (1989). Malleability of memory for emotional events. In T. Archer & L.-G. Nilsson (Eds.),Aversion, avoidance, and anxiety: Perspectives on aversively motivated behavior (pp. 311–322). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.

    Google Scholar 

  • Loftus, E. F., Loftus, G. R., & Messo, J. (1987). Some facts about “weapon focus”.Law and Human Behavior, 11, 55–62.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lowe, G. (1981). State-dependent recall decrements with moderate doses of alcohol.Current Psychological Research, 1, 3–8.

    Google Scholar 

  • Maass, A., & Kohnken, G. (1989). Eyewitness identification: Simulating the “weapon effect”.Law and Human Behavior, 13, 397–408.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Malpass, R., & Devine, P. (1981). Guided memory in eyewitness identification.Journal of Applied Psychology, 66, 343–350.

    Google Scholar 

  • Marlatt, G. A., & Rohsenow, D. J. (1980). Cognitive processes in alcohol use: Expectancy and the balanced placebo design. In N. K. Mello (Ed.),Advances in substance abuse: Behavioral and biological research (pp. 155–199). Greenwich, CT: JAI Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • McMillen, D. L., & Wells-Parker, E. (1987). The effect of alcohol consumption on risk-taking while driving.Addictive Behavior, 12, 241–247.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Moskowitz, H., & Sharma, S. (1974). Effects of alcohol on peripheral vision as a function of attention.Human Factors, 16, 174–180.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Nelson, T. O., McSpadden, M., Fromme, K., & Marlatt, G. A. (1986). Effects of alcohol intoxication on metamemory and on retrieval from long-term memory.Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 115, 247–254.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Parker, E. S., Alkana, R. L., Birnbaum, I. M., Hartley, J. T. & Noble, E. P. (1974). Alcohol and the disruption of cognitive processes.Archives of General Psychiatry, 31, 824–828.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Peters, D. P. (1987). The impact of naturally occurring stress on children's memory. In S. J. Ceci, M. P. Toglia, & D. F. Ross (Eds.).Children's eyewitness memory (pp. 122–141). New York: Springer-Verlag.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rohsenow, D. (1983). Drinking habits and expectancies about alcohol's effects for self versus others.Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 51, 752–756.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Ryback, R. S. (1971). The continuum and specificity of the effects of alcohol on memory.Quarterly Journal of Studies on Alcohol, 32, 995–1016.

    Google Scholar 

  • San Jose methods test of known crime victims. (1972). Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Justice.

  • Shapiro, P. N., & Penrod, S. (1986). Meta-analyses of facial identification studies.Psychological Bulletin, 100, 139–156.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sher, K. J. (1985). Subjective effects of alcohol: The influence of setting and individual differences in alcohol expectancies.Journal of Studies on Alcohol, 46, 137–146.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Steele, C. M., & Josephs, R. A. (1990). Alcohol myopia: Its prized and dangerous effects.American Psychologist, 45, 921–933.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Tooley, V., Brigham, J. C., Maass, A., & Bothwell, R. K. (1987). Facial recognition: Weapon effect and attentional focus.Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 17, 845–859.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wilson, G. T. (1982). Alcohol and anxiety: Recent evidence on the tension reduction theory of alcohol use and abuse. In K. R. Blankenstein & J. Polivy (Eds.),Self-control and self-modification of emotional behavior (pp. 117–141). New York: Plenum.

    Google Scholar 

  • Yuille, J. C., & Tollestrup, P. (1990). Some effects of alcohol on eyewitness memory.Journal of Applied Psychology, 75, 268–273.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Yuille, J. C., & Cutshall, J. L. (1986). A case study of eyewitness memory of a crime.Journal of Applied Psychology, 71, 291–301.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, University of Lethbridge, T1K 3M4, Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada

    J. Don Read

  2. University of British Columbia, British Columbia, Canada

    John C. Yuille & Patricia Tollestrup

Authors
  1. J. Don Read
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. John C. Yuille
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Patricia Tollestrup
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

About this article

Cite this article

Don Read, J., Yuille, J.C. & Tollestrup, P. Recollections of a robbery. Law Hum Behav 16, 425–446 (1992). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02352268

Download citation

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02352268

Keywords

Search

Navigation