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Best practice eyewitness interviewing mnemonics have not been tested with linguistically diverse samples. Cognitively complex mnemonics may overload non-native speakers’ cognitive resources, which are already engaged in speaking a non-native language. Social facilitation mnemonics may help non-native speakers, who might be hesitant to report details. The current study tested the reverse order mnemonic (cognitively complex) and a set of introductory instructions (social facilitation) compared to control interviews among native and non-native English speakers. Native speakers provided more details than nonnative speakers, particularly in the control interview condition. Both the reverse order and control conditions elicited newly generated details because of repeated questioning. Accuracy rates were comparable across language and interview conditions. Future research should develop an interviewing protocol that is sensitive to the challenges faced by nonnative speakers.

Alcohol-intoxicated suspects’ confessions are admissible in U.S. courts; however, it is unknown how jurors evaluate such confessions. Study 1 assessed potential jurors’ perceptions of intoxication in interrogative contexts. Many respondents were unaware that questioning intoxicated suspects and presenting subsequent confessions in court are legal, and respondents generally reported they would rely less on intoxicated than sober confessions. In Study 2, potential jurors read a case about a defendant who had confessed or not while sober or intoxicated. Participants who read about an intoxicated defendant perceived the interrogation as more inappropriate and the defendant as more cognitively impaired than did participants who read about a sober defendant, and as a result, they were less likely to convict. Furthermore, intoxicated confessions influenced conviction decisions to a lesser extent than did sober confessions. Findings suggest that investigators might consider abstaining from interrogating intoxicated suspects or else risk jurors finding confessions unconvincing in court.

Police commonly interview intoxicated suspects. This is concerning when suspects are innocent because intoxication often leads to a higher risk for impulsive decision making and reduces inhibition. However, the manner in which intoxication affects people's reporting of unethical or criminal actions carried out by themselves or others is unknown and was thus addressed in the current study. Participants (N = 116) were randomly assigned to one of six conditions based on a 2 (transgression: self, other) × 3 (alcohol condition: low-to-moderate intoxication, placebo, sober-control) between-participants design. After drinking their assigned beverages, participants were asked to disclose a transgression. No main effect of alcohol emerged. However, the odds that participants would report a transgression were significantly higher if they were asked to report a personal, rather than someone else's, transgression. Overall, low-to-moderate intoxication did not increase the likelihood of sensitive information disclosure in this initial study, but additional research is needed.

Intoxicated witnesses are common, making it important to understand alcohol's impact on witness accuracy and suggestibility. Participants assigned to an immediate retrieval condition encoded and recalled in one of the three intoxication conditions: sober control, placebo, or intoxicated. Participants in the delayed retrieval condition were assigned to encode in one of the three intoxication conditions, returned a week later, and were assigned to retrieve in one of the three intoxication conditions. Intoxication condition at encoding was fully crossed with intoxication condition at retrieval in the delayed condition. Participants encoded a mock crime video and retrieved via a forced-choice test, with answers already circled (purportedly by a prior participant); half of the precircled responses were incorrect. When recalling after a delay only, intoxication at encoding increased agreement with incorrect suggested answers and decreased accuracy. Results suggest intoxicated witnesses may benefit from being interviewed immediately rather than after a sobering delay.

Interpreters play an important role in the criminal justice system, yet little is known about the way interpreters are used. This survey of U.S. law enforcement (N = 299) assessed practices and perceptions regarding interpreter use during interviews with nonnative English speakers. Investigators reported using colleagues more often than professional interpreters, using interpreters more often with suspects and in certain crimes (e.g., domestic violence), and that interpreters are usually at least partially informed about case facts prior to translating. Investigators responded to experimental vignettes, and results indicated they were more likely to seek and obtain interpreters when an interviewee has lived in the United States for fewer years; however, the language spoken and the interviewee's role (e.g., witness vs. suspect) did not affect decisions to request an interpreter. Several avenues for future experimental research are identified and discussed, including interpreting over the phone and interpreter susceptibility to biases.

Rapport building is a widely recommended investigative technique that sometimes improves eyewitness recall. However, a clear understanding of how rapport impacts witness recall is lacking. We explored benevolence as a mediator between rapport and eyewitness recall while fixing the pre‐interview interaction to 3 min. Further, we explored whether rapport would lead to benevolence transferring to a subsequent unrelated task. A total of 109 participants viewed a mock crime and were interviewed about the crime either with or without rapport. Afterward, participants were asked to volunteer for a future research opportunity. Results indicated that rapport participants reported higher benevolence than control participants. Additionally, rapport participants volunteered to help the investigator more often than control participants. Exploratory factor analysis extracted two "benevolence" factors: (1) Effortful informativeness and (2) positive and rewarding. Our findings have implications for real‐world investigators who may appeal to witnesses' desire to be helpful and their resultant sense of satisfaction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Forensic science is a central component of jurors' decisions in many criminal cases. Nevertheless, research has shown that jurors are not sensitive to violations of testimonial guidelines for expert testimony in court and generally struggle to comprehend and evaluate forensic science testimony. Consequently, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) developed the Uniform Language for Testimony and Reports (ULTR) to standardize the language used in such testimony. The current study created and tested a Forensic Science Informational (FSI) video as an intervention to bolster jurors' understanding of FSI. After reading a case summary, participants were randomly assigned to read and rate five forensic expert testimony violations without any training, or to watch the FSI video before reading and rating each violation. Results revealed that participants with video exposure rated both the expert testimony and the expert themselves lower than those without such exposure, indicating they recognized the violations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This archival study was the first in Sweden, and the first outside of the US and the UK, to apply the (Kelly et al., Psychology, Public Policy, and Law, 9, 165–178, 2013) taxonomy of interrogation methods framework to repeated police interrogations of adult suspects in high‐stakes crimes. Audio/video recordings (N = 19) were collected from the Swedish Police Authority of repeated interrogations of three suspects in three criminal cases. The interaction between interrogators and suspects were scored according to the taxonomy framework (Kelly et al., Psychology, Public Policy, and Law, 9, 165–178, 2013; Kelly et al., Law and Human Behavior, 40, 295–309, 2016). First, there was an association between the use of different domains. Rapport and relationship building was moderately and negatively associated with confrontation/competition and presentation of evidence. Moreover, confrontation/competition was moderately and positively related to emotion provocation and presentation of evidence. Second, changes were observed during the interrogations. Presentation of evidence was lower in the beginning than in the middle block. Suspect cooperation was higher in the beginning than both the middle and end blocks. Third, an ordered logistic regression showed that rapport and relationship building were associated with increased suspect cooperation, and confrontation/competition and presentation of evidence were associated with decreased cooperation. The study's results are mostly in line with other taxonomy studies on high‐stakes crimes from the US and the UK. The findings are discussed in light of theoretical frameworks, empirical findings, and current police practice. We also highlight the need for further research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Low-stakes crimes related to alcohol and/or drugs are common around the world, but research is lacking on police–suspect interactions of such crimes. A large proportion of these suspects are intoxicated during interrogations, and many may have substance use disorder, making them potentially vulnerable to interrogative pressure. Methods: To address this lack of knowledge, the taxonomy of interrogation methods framework (i.e., 60C interrogation techniques classified into five domains) and a common classification of question types (appropriate vs. inappropriate) were applied in the coding of written police interrogations. Two archival studies, one pilot (Study 1, N = 39) and one main study (Study 2, N = 97) analyzed police interrogations with suspects of alcohol- and drug-related crimes in Sweden. Results: For both Study 1 and 2, suspects showed signs of alcohol and/or drug intoxication, hangover or withdrawal in more than 50% of all interrogations. In Study 2, additional coding indicated that suspects displayed signs of substance use disorder in 57% of the interrogations. The main results from both studies revealed a large number of direct questions asked by the police across all interrogations, and relatively little use of the strategic interrogation techniques from the taxonomy of interrogation methods framework. In fact, when it came to interrogation techniques, law enforcement used more confrontational techniques in their interactions with intoxicated suspects compared to sober suspects. Furthermore, suspects displaying signs of substance use disorder were significantly more cooperative and prone to confess than suspects without indicators of substance use disorder. Conclusion: As the first novel study on low-stakes crime interrogations related to alcohol and/or drugs, the present study provides useful information about current Swedish interrogation practices and areas for improvement. The study results indicate that suspects displaying signs of intoxication or Frontiers in substance use disorder may be more vulnerable during police interrogations. This may in turn have the potential to inform the development of new interrogation policies. Due to the novelty of this research, more studies are needed, both on a national and international level, to examine interrogations in low-stakes crimes further. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Alcohol-related crimes are very common globally, including in Scandinavia. Despite this, no survey to date has examined the prevalence of alcohol- and drug-intoxicated suspects in Sweden specifically, or which procedures police use when interacting with this suspect group. Given the current lack of (inter)national policy guidelines on how to interrogate intoxicated persons, it is important to examine law enforcement's contact with this potentially vulnerable group in different contexts. This was the aim of the present study. Data were collected via an online survey sent out to Swedish police investigators and 133 officers responded in total. A large majority (87%) of responses indicated that it was common or very common to encounter intoxicated suspects, but findings also suggest that police departments differ in their procedures for when and how to conduct investigations and interviews involving drunk suspects. Our findings support the need for (inter)national guidelines on how to interview intoxicated suspects and the need for more scientific studies on how alcohol affects suspect's memory and decision making. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Applying psychological science can enhance contact tracing interviews. • The yield of contact tracing interviews can be increased by >50%. • Self-led contact tracing interviews can be just as effective as interviewer-led. • Self-led online contact tracing interviews can save resources. To compare the efficacy of a psychologically-based contact tracing interview protocol to a control protocol that emulated current practices under both interviewer-led and self-led modalities. This randomized controlled experiment utilized a 2 × 2 factorial design (Enhanced Cognitive protocol vs Control protocol; Interviewer-led call vs Self-led online survey). Data were collected online (n = 200; M age = 44; 56.5% female; 79.5% White) during the COVID-19 pandemic (July 2, 2020 - September 15, 2020). The Enhanced Cognitive protocol increased reported close contacts by 51% compared with the Control protocol (d = 0.44 [0.15, 0.71]). This effect was present for both interview modalities and for both identifiable and non-identifiable contacts. The Enhanced Cognitive protocol also increased both the quantity of person descriptors (d = 1.36 [0.87, 1.85]) and the utility of descriptions (r = 0.35 [0.13, 0.53]). The application of cognitive principles in contact tracing interviews can significantly enhance the quantity and quality of information provided by respondents. Epidemiologists and public health investigators could benefit from utilizing cognitive principles and self-led modalities in contact tracing interviews. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Summary: Intoxicated witnesses are common, making it important to understand alcohol's impact on witness accuracy and suggestibility. Participants assigned to an immediate retrieval condition encoded and recalled in one of the three intoxication conditions: sober control, placebo, or intoxicated. Participants in the delayed retrieval condition were assigned to encode in one of the three intoxication conditions, returned a week later, and were assigned to retrieve in one of the three intoxication conditions. Intoxication condition at encoding was fully crossed with intoxication condition at retrieval in the delayed condition. Participants encoded a mock crime video and retrieved via a forced‐choice test, with answers already circled (purportedly by a prior participant); half of the precircled responses were incorrect. When recalling after a delay only, intoxication at encoding increased agreement with incorrect suggested answers and decreased accuracy. Results suggest intoxicated witnesses may benefit from being interviewed immediately rather than after a sobering delay. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: Police commonly interview intoxicated suspects. This is concerning when suspects are innocent because intoxication often leads to a higher risk for impulsive decision making and reduces inhibition. However, the manner in which intoxication affects people's reporting of unethical or criminal actions carried out by themselves or others is unknown and was thus addressed in the current study. Participants (N = 116) were randomly assigned to one of six conditions based on a 2 (transgression: self, other) × 3 (alcohol condition: low‐to‐moderate intoxication, placebo, sober‐control) between‐participants design. After drinking their assigned beverages, participants were asked to disclose a transgression. No main effect of alcohol emerged. However, the odds that participants would report a transgression were significantly higher if they were asked to report a personal, rather than someone else's, transgression. Overall, low‐to‐moderate intoxication did not increase the likelihood of sensitive information disclosure in this initial study, but additional research is needed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To stem the spread of infectious diseases (e.g., Ebola), epidemiologists conduct contact tracing interviews (CTIs) with infected individuals regarding their contacts who may also be infected. These contact tracing interviews, however, may be vulnerable to deadly errors of omission. A promising technique to maximise recall is the Cognitive Interview (CI), which is grounded in psychological theory. In the present study, participants imagined they were infected with meningococcal meningitis and reported their contacts over the previous three days during either a control interview or a CI. To model the cognitive impairment associated with being sick, half of the participants were interviewed while simultaneously completing a cognitive impairment task. The CI generated more contacts than the control interview. However, when the cognitive impairment task was completed, the CI and the control interview performed similarly. We recommend the CI be considered as an alternative to the control interview, particularly if the interviewee is not temporarily impaired due to distraction or illness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: Interpreters play an important role in the criminal justice system, yet little is known about the way interpreters are used. This survey of U.S. law enforcement (N = 299) assessed practices and perceptions regarding interpreter use during interviews with nonnative English speakers. Investigators reported using colleagues more often than professional interpreters, using interpreters more often with suspects and in certain crimes (e.g., domestic violence), and that interpreters are usually at least partially informed about case facts prior to translating. Investigators responded to experimental vignettes, and results indicated they were more likely to seek and obtain interpreters when an interviewee has lived in the United States for fewer years; however, the language spoken and the interviewee's role (e.g., witness vs. suspect) did not affect decisions to request an interpreter. Several avenues for future experimental research are identified and discussed, including interpreting over the phone and interpreter susceptibility to biases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is minimal research on metacognition in alcohol-intoxicated participants. Study 1 examined metacognition across sober, intoxicated, and placebo groups, with the intoxicated group's breath alcohol concentration reaching 0.074 g/210 L on average immediately prior to the metacognition task. Participants answered cued recall general knowledge questions and provided confidence ratings and feeling-of-knowing judgments. They then completed a recognition (i.e., multiple choice) version of the same task, indicating an answer and a confidence rating for each question. Findings suggest that metacognitive accuracy generally did not vary across intoxication levels, although the control group's retrospective confidence judgments better discriminated between accurate and inaccurate responses than the alcohol groups in the recognition task. Study 2 surveyed academic psychologists about their expectations regarding the relation between alcohol and metacognition. Study 1's results were counter to their expectations, as respondents generally predicted a relation would be present. We discuss the implications for alcohol and memory.Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many real-world eyewitnesses are under the influence of alcohol either at the time of the crime, the interview, or both. Only recently has empirical research begun to examine the effects of alcohol on witness memory, yielding mixed results. The present study tested the importance of state-dependent memory in the context of alcohol's effects on encoding versus retrieval of a witnessed event, while simultaneously informing real-world investigative practices: Should witnesses sober up before an interview? Participants (N = 249) were randomized to a control, placebo, or alcohol condition at encoding and to either an immediate retrieval condition (in the same state) or a 1-week delay control, placebo, or alcohol retrieval condition. They recalled a witnessed mock crime using open ended and cued recall formats. After a delay, witnesses intoxicated at both encoding and retrieval provided less accurate information than witnesses in sober or placebo groups at both times. There was no advantage of state-dependent memory but intoxicated witnesses were best when recalling immediately compared to 1 week later (sober, placebo, or reintoxicated). Findings have direct implications for the timing of intoxicated witnesses' interviews such that moderately intoxicated witnesses may not benefit from a sobering delay but rather, should be interviewed immediately. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Some innocent suspects rely on the memory of strangers to corroborate their alibis. However, no research has examined whether such potential alibi corroborators can accurately recognize an innocent suspect with whom they previously interacted. We developed a novel alibi corroboration paradigm in which undergraduate students (representing innocent suspects who would later provide an alibi) interacted with naïve university employees (representing potential alibi corroborators). Each student briefly interacted with a different naïve university employee (n = 60), and were also each yoked to a different employee with whom they did not interact (n = 60). Employees were presented 24 hours later with either a single photograph of the student or a six-person array containing a photograph of the student and were asked if they recognized anyone. The majority of employees failed to make a correct recognition of the student. False recognitions, however, were rare. Students exhibited overconfidence that they would be recognized. Findings imply that innocent suspects who rely on strangers to corroborate their alibis may be at risk. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Building rapport with adult witnesses and suspects is recommended by major investigative interviewing protocols (e.g., Cognitive Interview and the Army Field Manual in the USA and PEACE in the UK). Although recent research suggests that building rapport can sometimes benefit police investigations by increasing the accuracy of adult eyewitness reports and potentially enhance the diagnosticity of evidence obtained from suspects, little data exist regarding how law enforcement interviewers actually define and build rapport in real-world investigations. To fill this void, the present study distributed a questionnaire containing open and closed-ended questions to 123 law enforcement interviewers in police training courses to determine how they conceptualize and build rapport with adult interviewees. Results indicate that a majority of law enforcement interviewers define rapport as a positive relationship involving trust and communication, with a strong minority defining rapport as a 'positive or negative' relationship. Further, law enforcement interviewers reported building rapport with adult witnesses and suspects in a similar manner, often by using verbal techniques (e.g., discussing common interests via small talk) and non-verbal techniques (e.g., displaying understanding via empathy and sympathy). Theoretical and applied implications of these results are discussed. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite growing interest in intelligence interviewing, there is little empirical research directly addressing interrogations conducted with the goal of collecting human intelligence (HUMINT). The current study used an experimental intelligence-gathering paradigm to test the efficacy of two clusters of emotion-based interrogation approaches from the US Army Field Manual. Results suggest that both Positive and Negative Emotional Approaches increased the collection of information from both guilty and innocent participants when compared with a Direct Approach. While the emotional approaches produced similar gains in information regardless of valence, positive approaches reduced anxiety, increased perceptions of a fostering atmosphere, and enhanced the relationship between fostering atmosphere and information gain. The implications for the use of these techniques in the intelligence interviewing context are discussed. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The ability to accurately assess credibility is important in countless situations, including many in which individuals being assessed are not speaking their native language. There is reason to believe that native and non-native speakers may behave differently when lying and that detectors may have a bias to believe non-native speakers are lying. However, very little is known about detecting deception in non-native speakers, and the few existing studies have not resulted in consistent findings. The current research compared the ability to detect lies and truths in native speakers with that in non-native speakers and looked at differences in the cues displayed via the Psychologically Based Credibility Assessment Tool. Results from two samples with different demographic characteristics and backgrounds indicated that there was a bias to believe that non-native speakers were lying. These results may have implications regarding the use of interpreters in settings where credibility is being assessed. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although memory deteriorates over time, people may be able to maintain high accuracy by metacognitively monitoring the quality of their memories and strategically controlling their memory reports. We test two mechanisms of metacognitive control: Exercising a report option (withholding uncertain responses) and adjusting response precision (providing imprecise, but likely accurate, responses). Participants observed a mock crime and were interviewed after 10 minutes or 1 week. Interviews consisted of answerable questions in one of three formats (free narrative, cued recall, yes/no), allowing participants to exert more or less control over their answers. Participants' reports showed tradeoffs between accuracy, quantity and precision of information. Depending on the question format, participants maintained high accuracy even at the delayed report either by opting not to answer (yes/no or cued recall) or by providing imprecise answers (cued recall or free narrative). We discuss implications for experimental research, metacognitive theory and the criminal justice system. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although psychologists have urged police officers to use double blind line-up procedures during their investigations, police officers state that these would be difficult to administer and most have been reluctant to implement this change. Four studies examine whether lay people's judgements about the guilt of a suspect vary according to whether a brief written summary of a case described the identification procedure as double blind or non-double blind. The effects were all small (and almost all non-significant). Most people do not treat double blind line-ups differently from non-double blind line-ups when assessing the guilt of a defendant. Either police investigators should stop using this biased method or police investigators and others in the judicial system (e.g. jurors, judges) should be informed of this bias when evaluating results from any line-up. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The discovery of many cases of wrongful conviction in the criminal justice system involving admissions from innocent suspects has led psychologists to examine the factors contributing to false confessions. However, little systematic research has assessed the processes underlying Human Intelligence (HUMINT) interrogations relating to military and intelligence operations. The current article examines the similarities and differences between interrogations in criminal and HUMINT settings, and discusses the extent to which the current empirical literature can be applied to criminal and/or HUMINT interrogations. Finally, areas of future research are considered in light of the need for improving HUMINT interrogation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Memory for prior contacts has several important applied implications, including contact tracing (for communicable diseases). Incomplete episodic memory reports, which occur across the developmental lifespan but are particularly relevant for children and older adults, may hamper such efforts. Prior research has shown that cognitively informed memory techniques may bolster recall of contacts in adults, but that work has not addressed the developmental efficacy of these techniques. Here we evaluated the effectiveness of such techniques for familiar and unfamiliar contacts within a sample of 9- to 89-year-olds in the context of an ongoing pandemic. The tested memory techniques bolstered recall across the lifespan, irrespective of whether the interview was conducted live with an interviewer or via a self-led interview. Children, emerging adults, and adults did not reveal any differences in memory productivity, however, older adults recalled fewer contacts. Implications for theory and application are discussed., (© 2024. The Author(s).)

Objective: We explored whether an educational forensic science informational (FSI) video either alone or with specialized jury instructions would assist mock jurors in evaluating forensic expert testimony., Hypotheses: We predicted that the FSI video would help participants distinguish between low-quality and high-quality testimony, evidenced by lower ratings of the testimony and the expert when the testimonial quality was low compared with when it was high., Method: Jury-eligible adults ( N = 641; M age = 38.18 years; 77.4% White; 8.1% Latino/a or Hispanic; 50.1% male) watched a mock trial and were randomly assigned to a no-forensic-evidence control condition or to a test condition (i.e., participants either watched the FSI video before the trial or did not and either received specialized posttrial instructions or did not). In the test conditions, a forensic expert provided low-quality or high-quality testimony about a latent impression, and participants rated the expert, their testimony, and the forensic evidence. All participants rendered verdicts., Results: The presence of the FSI video interacted with testimonial quality on ratings of the expert and forensic testimony: In the video-present condition, participants rated the expert in the low-quality testimony condition lower than did participants in the high-quality testimony condition (between-condition differences for credibility: d = -0.52, 95% confidence interval [CI] [-0.78, -0.27]; trustworthiness: d = -0.67, 95% CI [-0.92, -0.42]; knowledgeability: d = -0.54, 95% CI [-0.80, -0.29]). The pattern was the same for the expert's testimony (between-condition differences for convincingness: d = -0.41, 95% CI [-0.66, -0.16]; validity: d = -0.60, 95% CI [-0.86, -0.35]; presentation quality: d = -0.51, 95% CI [-0.76, -0.25]). Participants' ratings in the video-absent condition did not differ on the basis of testimonial quality ( d s = -0.07-0.11). The ratings of the print evidence and verdicts were unaffected. Specialized jury instructions had no effect., Conclusion: The FSI video may be a practical in-court intervention to increase jurors' sensitivity to low-quality forensic testimony without creating skepticism. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

Objective: Law enforcement officers often encounter alcohol-intoxicated suspects, suggesting that many suspects are presented with the challenge of grasping the meaning and significance of their Miranda rights while intoxicated. Such comprehension is crucial, given that Miranda is intended to minimize the likelihood of coercive interrogations resulting in self-incrimination and protect suspects' constitutional rights. Yet, the effects of alcohol on individuals' ability to understand and appreciate their Miranda rights remain unknown-a gap that the present study sought to address., Hypotheses: Informed by alcohol myopia theory (AMT), we predicted that intoxicated individuals would demonstrate impaired Miranda comprehension compared to sober individuals and those who believed they were intoxicated (but were in fact not; i.e., placebo participants)., Method: After health screenings, participants completed the Wechsler Abbreviated Scale of Intelligence-Second Edition verbal subtests, rendering a Verbal Comprehension Index (VCI) score. We randomly assigned participants to consume alcohol (n = 51; mean breath alcohol concentration [BrAC] = 0.07%), a placebo condition (n = 44; BrAC = 0.00%), or a sober control condition (n = 41; BrAC = 0.00%). All participants (N = 136) completed the Miranda Rights Comprehension Instruments (MRCI), which measured participants' understanding of the Miranda warnings, recognition of the warnings, appreciation of their rights in interrogation and court settings, and understanding of Miranda -related vocabulary., Results: We found a significant effect of intoxication condition on participants' understanding of Miranda warnings (η² p = .14) and Miranda-related vocabulary (η² p = .05) when controlling for VCI scores. Specifically, intoxicated participants received lower scores for understanding of warnings compared to sober and placebo participants, and lower scores for understanding of Miranda vocabulary compared to sober participants. Alcohol did not significantly impact Miranda rights recognition or appreciation., Conclusions: Alcohol intoxication may detrimentally impact some facets of Miranda comprehension. Thus, it is important that law enforcement consider refraining from questioning intoxicated suspects. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

Many real-world eyewitnesses are under the influence of alcohol either at the time of the crime, the interview, or both. Only recently has empirical research begun to examine the effects of alcohol on witness memory, yielding mixed results. The present study tested the importance of state-dependent memory in the context of alcohol's effects on encoding versus retrieval of a witnessed event, while simultaneously informing real-world investigative practices: Should witnesses sober up before an interview? Participants (N = 249) were randomized to a control, placebo, or alcohol condition at encoding and to either an immediate retrieval condition (in the same state) or a 1-week delay control, placebo, or alcohol retrieval condition. They recalled a witnessed mock crime using open ended and cued recall formats. After a delay, witnesses intoxicated at both encoding and retrieval provided less accurate information than witnesses in sober or placebo groups at both times. There was no advantage of state-dependent memory but intoxicated witnesses were best when recalling immediately compared to 1 week later (sober, placebo, or reintoxicated). Findings have direct implications for the timing of intoxicated witnesses' interviews such that moderately intoxicated witnesses may not benefit from a sobering delay but rather, should be interviewed immediately. (PsycINFO Database Record, ((c) 2017 APA, all rights reserved).)

Alcohol typically has a detrimental impact on memory across a variety of encoding and retrieval conditions (e.g., Mintzer, 2007; Ray & Bates, 2006). No research has addressed alcohol's effect on memory for lengthy and interactive events and little has tested alcohol's effect on free recall. In this study 94 participants were randomly assigned to alcohol, placebo, or control groups and consumed drinks in a bar-lab setting while interacting with a "bartender". Immediately afterwards all participants freely recalled the bar interaction. Consistent with alcohol myopia theory, intoxicated participants only differed from placebo and control groups when recalling peripheral information. Expanding on the original hypervigilance hypothesis, placebo participants showed more conservative reporting behaviour than the alcohol or control groups by providing more uncertain and "don't know" responses. Thus, alcohol intoxication had confined effects on memory for events, supporting and extending current theories., (© 2011 Psychology Press, an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an Informa business)