This study examined the effects of arousal and alcohol intoxication on measures of eyewitness identification and recall. Subjects were 52 male undergraduates of legal drinking age who were social drinkers with no identified alcohol-related problems. Elevated arousal was induced in one half of the subjects by a threat of public speaking manipulation, while the other half was left at normal arousal. Within each of these groups, half of the subjects received a dose of alcohol sufficient to reach a maximum peak BAL of.075, and half drank orange juice only. Following the arousal and beverage manipulations, subjects observed a speaker target and a critic target on a videotape and then were asked to describe both individuals. Two days later they were asked to identify each of the individuals from photo lineups. The main dependent variables in this 2 x 2 design were eyewitness description and identification accuracy rates. Other dependent measures included subjects' confidence ratings of their own accuracy for each lineup, latency to respond to each lineup, and time estimates of target viewing time. Results indicated a main effect of alcohol on description accuracy and identification accuracy for the critic target, indicating a reduction in accuracy due to intoxication. There were no main effects of arousal on any measures. There was a Beverage x Arousal interaction for a measure of completeness of description for the speaker target, and for measures of confidence and latency to respond to the critic target-present lineup showing that subjects in the normal arousal and alcohol condition, or in the elevated arousal and the no-alcohol condition, offered more descriptions for the speaker target, were more confident of their accuracy in identifying the critic, and took less time to identify the critic from the lineup. Suggestions for future research aimed at clarifying the complicated nature of the alcohol-arousal-accuracy relationship are made. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 51-06, Section: B, page: 3140. / Major Professor: Alan R. Lang. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1990.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:fsu.edu/oai:fsu.digital.flvc.org:fsu_78264 |
| Contributors | Michalec, Elizabeth Mary., Florida State University |
| Source Sets | Florida State University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Text |
| Format | 145 p. |
| Rights | On campus use only. |
| Relation | Dissertation Abstracts International |
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