How does alcohol affect memory for sexual assault, and memory for forensically relevant details in particular? This talk provides an overview of research on the topic.

1. Remembering rape:
A randomised controlled test
of the effects of acute alcohol
intoxication and alcohol
expectancies on women’s
memory
Heather D. Flowe1 and Lisa E. Smith2
1University of Birmingham, School of Psychology
2University of Leicester, Criminology

2. Alcohol and Sexual Violence
 473,000 adults in England and Wales are victims of sexual
offenses per year on average (Home Office, 2013)
 Estimates for rape and attempted rape have ranged up to an
annual high of 1.27 million persons in the U.S. (National
Research Council, 2014)

3. Alcohol and
Sexual Violence
 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

4. 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)

5. Alcohol and memory: blackouts
 Fragmentary blackout
 A person is able to remember
partial information; memory
formation is incomplete
 more common than en bloc
 En bloc blackout
 Alcohol blackout can occur at high
levels of intoxication (e.g., BAC =
.14 to .27%)
 A person will have no memory and
not be able to recall anything about
events that took place for a stretch
of time
 Sensory and short-term memory
are preserved

6. Alcohol’s Effects on Memory
• Alcohol expectancies affect
attention and memory, with women
demonstrating increased
hypervigilance in risky sexual
scenarios (Flowe et al., 2015;
Testa, 2006)
• Alcohol affects completeness but
not the accuracy of recall Hagsand, Roos af
Hjelmsäter, Granhag, Fahlke, & Söderpalm Gordh, 2012; Harvey, Kneller &
Campbell, 2013; Hildebrand Karlén, Roos af Hjelmsäter, Fahlke, Granhag, &
Söderpalm Gordh, 2014; Schreiber Compo et al., 2012; Schreiber Compo et al.,
2017; Van Oorsouw, & Merckelbach, 2012 )

7. Research Questions
 Does acute alcohol intoxication affect the victim’s
ability to remember details about the sexual activity
that took place during the rape?
 Can victims who were intoxicated accurately
remember the sequence of activities that occurred?
 Are women more likely to be accurate if they are
confident their memory is accurate?

8. Participants
 78 women between the ages of 18 and 31 (M=20.52, SD=2.31)

9. Design
 2 beverage (alcohol BAC .06% or tonic) x 2 expectancy (told
alcohol or told tonic) between subjects design
 Dependent variables:
 Number of correct and incorrect activities remembered
 Proportion correct
 Sequence accuracy
 Confidence

10. Stage 1 Stage 2 Stage 3
7 days later
Screening

11. Screening
 Medical conditions
 Medication
 Problem drinking behaviours
 Pregnancy

12. Stage 1 Stage 2 Stage 3
Screening
Beverage
Manipulation
Rape Scenario
Rape scenario presented via participant choice procedure: Flowe et al., 2007;
Flowe et al., 2011; Flowe et al., 2016; Flowe et al., 2017

13. Method: Session 1,
Encoding Phase

14. Method: Session 1,
Encoding Phase

15. Method: Session 1,
Encoding Phase

16. 0 .0 0
0 .0 2
0 .0 4
0 .0 6
0 .0 8
0 .1 0
0 .1 2
0 .1 4
0 .0 0 0 .1 0 0 .2 0 0 .3 0 0 .4 0 0 .5 0 0 .6 0 0 .7 0 0 .8 0 0 .9 0 1 .0 0
Intimate E ncounte r S urv iv al T ime
OddsIntercourseProsecutedasRape
M oderate High
Consent Level, Sexual History,
and Prosecuting Rape
(Flowe & Ebbesen, 2007)
Flowe, H.D. & Ebbesen, E.B. (2007). Rape shield laws and sexual behavior evidence: Effects of consent level and women’s
sexual history on rape allegations. Law and Human Behavior, 1, 159-175.

17. Stage 1 Stage 2 Stage 3
7 days later
Screening
Beverage
Manipulation
Rape
Post-
event
Narrative
Interview
Recog
Test

18. Stage 1 Stage 2 Stage 3
7 days later
Screening
Beverage
Manipulation
Rape
Post-
event
Narrative
Interview
Recog
Test

19. Results
0
0.1
0.2
0.3
0.4
0.5
0.6
0.7
0.8
0.9
1
Told Alcohol Told Tonic
Consensual Activity Memory
Accuracy
Alcohol
Tonic
 Women accurately
remembered the sexual
activities to which they
had consented
 Alcohol consumption
and expectancy did not
affect consensual
memory accuracy

20. Results
 Women less accurately
remembered the
perpetrator’s behavior
during the rape
 Alcohol consumption
and expectancy were
not significantly
associated with
decreased accuracy
0
0.1
0.2
0.3
0.4
0.5
0.6
0.7
0.8
0.9
1
Told Alcohol Told Tonic
Rape Memory Accuracy
Alcohol
Tonic

21. Results
 Women who expected to
consume alcohol remembered
more accurately overall
0
0.1
0.2
0.3
0.4
0.5
0.6
0.7
0.8
ProportionCorrect
Memory Accuracy Overall
Expect
Alcohol
Expect
Tonic

22. Results
 Women’s memory for
sequence did not vary
in relation to alcohol
consumption or
expectancy
0
2
4
6
8
10
12
Told Alcohol Told Tonic
Errors
Sequence Difference
Alcohol
Tonic

23. Results
 Women’s ability to
evaluate the likely
accuracy of their
memory did not vary
with alcohol
consumption
 There was an
association between
confidence and
accuracy: As confidence
in memory increased,
memory accuracy
increased
.00
.10
.20
.30
.40
.50
.60
.70
.80
.90
1.00
0 10-40% 50-70% 80-100%
Accuracy
Confidence
Beverage Results
Perfect
calibration
Consumed
Alcohol
Consumed
Placebo

24. Conclusion
 Does acute alcohol intoxication affect the victim’s ability to
remember details about the sexual activity that took place during
the rape?
 Women who believed they consumed alcohol had better memory
performance. Alcohol consumption itself did not affect performance.
 Can victims who were intoxicated accurately remember the
sequence of activities that occurred? Yes
 Are women more likely to be accurate if they are confident their
memory is accurate?
 Yes and alcohol consumption does not affect the association between
confidence and accuracy

25. Implications, Limitations and
Future Directions
 Alcohol does not necessarily affect the quality of memory reports
 Larger dose of alcohol necessary
 Field research may enable higher doses, but the trade-off is that
alcohol expectancy cannot be studied

26. FMEs wanted to participate in
study
 We are investigating how alcohol intoxication during rape affects
the accuracy of victim accounts during FMEs. Please contact me
if you or your SARC can participate.
 Heather Flowe, PhD
 h.flowe@bham.ac.uk

27. Presentation Title
Speaker’s name
Acknowledgement
http://www.le.ac.uk/pc/cap/hf49/
We would like to thank the
Alcohol Research UK, the Wellcome
Trust, and the ESRC for supporting
this research.