9/13/11 Alcohol Education and Research Council Presentation Title Alcohol and memory for sexual aggression: Encoding failure Speaker’s dependsname on the emotional salience of the to-be-remembered information Heather D. Flowe and Naomi Cable http://www.le.ac.uk/pc/cap/hf49/ Alcohol and Sexual Assault • An estimated 1 out of 10 sexual assault cases are prosecuted in the United Kingdom • Alcohol is often antecedent to sexual assault, with up to 75% involving alcohol use on the part of the victim, the perpetrator, or both (Stern, 2010) • Prosecutors reject 65% of rape cases (Flowe et al., 2011), most often citing victim considerations such as alcohol use • Alcohol: – Prejudicial aspect – Probative aspect Alcohol and Sexual Assault • “Advocates and SANEs [Sexual Assault Nurse Examiners] get frustrated when we can’t move forward with an investigation, but sometimes we can’t because the victim doesn’t remember what happened or there are inconsistencies [in her story].” • From (Cole & Logan, 2010) 1 9/13/11 Research Objectives • Test whether the accuracy of women’s memories for sexual assault is negatively affected by alcohol – Are women more likely to remember information about the perpetrator compared to the more peripheral aspects of the encounter? – Is memory for peripheral information affected by alcohol to a greater extent than memory for the perpetrator? Alcohol Myopia Theory (Steele & Joseph, 1990) • Proposes that alcohol narrows the perceptual field, thereby making people more responsive to salient information and less responsive to peripheral information Alcohol Myopia Theory • Based on AMT, we hypothesised that women who are under the influence will remember peripheral information less accurately than salient information • How do you define salience? 2 9/13/11 Cue Utilization Theory (Easterbrook, 1959) • Emotional arousal restricts the focus of attention to stimuli in the environment that that are causing arousal – Salient stimuli we defined in relation to the perpetrator, as the perpetrator is the cause of emotional arousal to the victim. – Other event stimuli (bystanders and physical surroundings) are defined as peripheral Cue Utilization Theory • Emotional arousal can enhance memory for emotionally salient stimuli (Christianson, 1992) – Emotionally arousing experiences produces memory enhancements for details related to the emotion laden stimulus at the cost of less elaboration and consolidation of memory for peripheral details 3 9/13/11 Method • Recruitment and study procedures adhered to BPS ethics criteria • Participants: – 128 women recruited from public houses – 61% completed both sessions of the study – For participants who completed both sessions (n = 74): • 32% were not drinking during Session 1 (BAC=0) • Among drinkers: M BAC = .06 (SD =.03, Median = . 06, Range: .01-.10) • 100% indicated they were sober during Session II Method: Session 1, Encoding Phase Method: Session 1, Encoding Phase 4 9/13/11 Method: Session 1, Encoding Phase Method: Session 1, Encoding Phase Method: Session 2, Recognition Phase • Online multiple choice test 24 hours later • Number of correct salient items (n=15) and number of peripheral items (n=15) were tabulated • Examples of Salient Items: – What was Michael’s surname? – What was Michael wearing? – How old was Michael? • Examples of Peripheral Items: – What type of car did Michael have? – What type of material was the unusual lamp made out of? – At what time did you leave the bar? 5 9/13/11 Data Analysis • 2 Item Type (salient versus peripheral) x 2 BAC (low versus high, based on a median split of BAC scores) mixed design • Other variables measured: Participant sexual experience, whether the participant would report the sexual assault to the police • Data analysed with Survival Analysis and ANOVAs Preliminary Analyses • Women with more sexual experience remain in the scenario longer • Women indicated that they would not report what happened in the scenario to the police remained in the scenario longer (also see Flowe et al., 2007) Results 10 9 8 Correct Details 7 6 5 Central Peripheral 4 3 2 1 0 Not Intoxicated Intoxicated 6 9/13/11 Results 10 9 8 Correct Details 7 6 5 Central Peripheral 4 3 2 1 0 Would Not Report Would Report Implications and Future Directions • Results are in keeping with Alcohol Myopia Theory – Women who were under the influence remembered less peripheral information, but they were equally as good at remembering information about the perpetrator Implications and Future Directions • Cue Utilization Theory may also account for the results – Preliminary results from a follow-up study indicated that women who report strong negative affect remember more details about the perpetrator 7 9/13/11 Acknowledgement Presentation Title We would like to thank the Alcohol Education and Research Speaker’s Councilname for supporting this research through a small grant made to the first author. http://www.le.ac.uk/pc/cap/hf49/ School of Psychology, Forensic Section References Cole, J., & Logan, T. (2010). Interprofessional collaboration on sexual assault response teams (SART): The roleof victim alcohol use and a known-perpetrator. Journal of Interpersonal Violence, 2, 336-57. Presentation Title Christianson, S. A. (1992). Emotional stress and eyewitness memory: A critical review. Psychological Bulletin, 112, 284-309. Thank you! Easterbrook, J.A., 1959. The effect of emotion on cue utilization and the organization of behavior. Psychological Review, 66,183–201. Speaker’s name hf49@le.ac.uk Flowe, H., Ebbesen, E., & Putcha-Bhagavatula, A. (2007). Rape shield laws and sexual behavior evidence: Effects of consent level and women's sexual history on rape allegations. Law and Human Behavior, 31(2), 159-175. doi:10.1007/s10979-006-9050-z. Flowe, H. D., Mehta, A., & Ebbesen, E. B. (2010). The role of eyewitness identification evidence in felony case processing. Psychology, Public Policy and Law, 17, 140-159. doi: 10.1037/a0021311 Stern, V. (2010), The Stern Review: An Independent Review of How Rape Complaints are Handled by Public Authorities in England and Wales, London: Government Equalities Office/Home Office. Steel, C. M., & Joseph, R. A. (1990). Alcohol myopia: Its prized and dangerous effects. American Psychologist, 45, 921-933. http://www2.le.ac.uk/departments/psychology/ppl/hf49 School of Psychology, Forensic Section Presentation Title Thank you! Speaker’s name hf49@le.ac.uk http://www.le.ac.uk/pc/cap/hf49/ 8