Although alcohol intoxicated eyewitnesses are common, there are only
a few studies in the area. The aim of the current study is to investigate how
different doses of alcohol affect eyewitness lineup identification performance.
The participants (N = 123) were randomly assigned to a 3 [Beverage: control (0.0 g/kg ethanol) vs. lower (0.4 g/kg ethanol) vs. higher alcohol dose (0.7 g/kg ethanol)] X 2 (Lineup: target-present vs. target-absent) between-subject design. Participants consumed two glasses of beverage at an even pace for 15 minutes. Five minutes after consumption the participants witnessed a film depicting a staged kidnapping. Seven days later, the participants returned to the laboratory and were asked to identify the culprit in a simultaneous lineup.
The result showed that overall, the participants performed better than
chance; however, their lineup performance was poor. There were no significant
effects of alcohol
intoxication with respect to performance, neither in target-present nor
target-absent lineups.
The study’s results suggest that eyewitnesses who have
consumed a lower (0.4 g/kg ethanol) or a higher (0.7 g/kg ethanol) dose of
alcohol perform at the same level as sober eyewitnesses in a lineup.
The results
are discussed in relation to the alcohol myopia theory and suggestions for
future research are made.
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