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SYM 08: Blurred Minds: Exploring the Effects of Alcohol and Other Drugs on Memory and Cognition

Thursday, June 12, 2025
4:10 PM - 5:30 PM
Fountain Suite

Overview

Symposium organiser: Julie Gawrylowicz


Details

This symposium explores the nuanced effects of alcohol and similar substances on memory, with implications for legal settings. The first presentation examines retrograde facilitation in eyewitness memory, revealing how alcohol can both impair and enhance recall. The second focuses on how alcohol intoxication during encoding of a rape scenario impacts metamemory and recall accuracy in police interviews. The third investigates benzodiazepine effects on memory consolidation and retrieval in a novel placebo-controlled design. Finally, we discuss jurors' misconceptions regarding intoxication-affected testimony, proposing strategies to improve courtroom communication. Together, these talks shed light on critical intersections between intoxication, memory, and legal decision-making.


Speaker

Dr Julie Gawrylowicz
Reader In Applied Cognitive Psychology
Abertay University

THE IMPACT OF ALCOHOL-INDUCED RETROGRADE FACILITATION ON EYEWITNESS MEMORY

Symposium Presentation

Alcohol can both harm and protect memory. It impairs memory completeness and sometimes accuracy (Hildebrand Karlen, 2018) but may also enhance memory when consumed after encoding but before retrieval, known as retrograde facilitation (RF) (Gawrylowicz et al., 2017). This study explored RF mechanisms using the misinformation paradigm (McClosky and Zaragoza, 1985). Participants watched a mock crime, consumed alcohol, received misinformation, and were then tested on their memory. RF predicts poorer memory for misinformation due to alcohol preventing new information from entering memory. The findings offer theoretical insights and practical implications for memory research and eyewitness contexts.

Paper Number

556
Agenda Item Image
Prof Heather Flowe
Professor
University of Birmingham

The effects of acute alcohol intoxication on metamemory processes and accuracy when recalling a rape scenario

Symposium Presentation

This study investigates effects of acute alcohol intoxication during encoding of a rape scenario on metamemory processes and recall accuracy in police interviews. We analysed interview transcripts for metamemory indicators of retrieval effort, e.g., pauses, hedges, and filler words. Participants were intoxicated or sober during encoding but sober during recall. Accuracy was lower accuracy in the question compared to free recall phase, especially for intoxicated participants. Inaccurate recall was associated with increased retrieval effort indicators, particularly in the question phase. These findings offer promising avenues for future research on maintaining recall accuracy in police interviews with intoxicated witnesses.

Paper Number

561
Dr Lilian Kloft-Heller
Assistant Professor
Maastricht University

FROM MEMORY TO MISCONDUCT: THE ROLE OF BENZODIAZEPINES IN CRIME AND MEMORY IMPAIRMENT

Symposium Presentation

Benzodiazepines (e.g., Xanax) are pharmacologically similar to alcohol and frequently implicated in both unintentional criminal behaviour and drug-facilitated crime. This makes their effects on memory in a legal-psychological context particularly relevant. While benzodiazepines are known to cause amnesia when taken before encoding, their effects on memory consolidation and retrieval are less clear. In this talk I will present 1) data from a survey into benzodiazepine use and criminal behaviour, and 2) the design of an ongoing placebo-controlled study that separates benzodiazepine effects on these distinct memory stages, testing true and false memory for a crime scenario in virtual reality.

Paper Number

550
Dr Lauren Monds
Senior Lecturer
University of Sydney

A cocktail of confusion: Helping jurors make sense of testimony affected by alcohol intoxication

Symposium Presentation

Victims and witnesses are regularly intoxicated with alcohol during crimes and jurors must evaluate their intoxication-affected testimony when decision-making. Unfortunately, criminal justice systems often lack guidelines for decoding the complex effects of alcohol intoxication on memory. Intoxication is instead framed as a common knowledge issue: jurors are assumed capable of making informed decisions about alcohol and memory. Our research has consistently shown that jurors are ill equipped for this task. We will discuss the evidence for strategies to address this problem, with a focus on communication using familiar lay language and expert testimony.

Paper Number

453
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