Abstract
Forty subjects participated in a four-choice reaction time experiment in which they received alcohol (1 ml/kg body weight) in one session and no alcohol in another on consecutive days (the order being counterbalanced). Fifty practice trials and then 2,000 experimental trials were given in each session. Subjects were slower, more variable, and less accurate overall with alcohol than without. They were also slower and more variable in the first than in the second session. By combining the data across subjects to produce speed-error tradeoff functions, it appears that practice has little effect whereas alcohol has a substantial effect; responses made within 600 msec of stimulus presentation are more likely to be erroneous with alcohol than without. In addition, the number of consecutive errors was increased by alcohol. The results are interpreted within a model in which it is suggested that the primary effect of alcohol upon performance in speeded tasks is to decrease the rate of accumulation of evidence.
References
Broadbent, D. E. (1971).Decision and stress. London: Academic Press
Carpenter, J. A. (1962). Effects of alcohol on some psychological processes.Quarterly Journal of Studies on Alcohol,23, 274–314.
Drew, G. C., Colquhoun, W. P., &Long, H. A. (1959).Effects of small doses of alcohol on a skill resembling driving (MRC Memorandum No. 38). London: Her Majesty’s Stationery Office.
Fisher, S. (1984).Stress and the perception of control. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
Gustafson, R. (1986). Alcohol and vigilance performance: Effect of small doses of alcohol on simple visual reaction time.Perceptual & Motor Skills,62, 951–955.
Huntley, M. S. (1972). Influences of alcohol and S-R uncertainty upon spatial localisation time.Psychopharmacologia (Berlin),27, 131–140.
Huntley, M. S. (1973). Alcohol influences upon closed-course driving performance.Journal of Safety Research,5, 149–164.
Huntley, M.S. (1974). Effects of alcohol, uncertainty and novelty upon response selection.Psychopharmacologia (Berlin),39, 259–266.
Jennings, J. R., Wood, C. C., &Lawrence, B. E. (1976). Effects of graded doses of alcohol on speed-accuracy tradeoff in choice reaction time.Perception & Psychophysics,19, 85–91
Laming, D. (in press). Some boundary conditions of choice-reaction performance. In A. F. Sanders (Ed.),Proceedings of Aachen Symposium on Choice Reaction Time and Stress. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
Leonard, J. A. (1959). Tactual choice reactions: IQuarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology,11, 76–83.
Maylor, E. A., &Rabbitt, P. M. A. (1987). Effect of alcohol on rate of forgetting.Psychopharmacology,91, 230–235
Rabbitt, P. M. A. (1966). Errors and error correction in choice response tasksJournal of Experimental Psychology,71, 264–272
Rabbitt, P. M. A. (1979). Current paradigms and models in human information processing. In V. H. Hamilton & D. M. Warburton (Eds.),Human stress and cognition: An information processing approach. New York. Wile
Rabbitt, P. M. A. (in press). Models for effects of alcohol on skilled performance. In A. F. Sanders (Ed.),Proceedings of Aachen Symposium on Choice Reaction Tune and Stress. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
Rabbitt, P. M. A., &Goward, L. (1986). Effects of age and raw IQ test score on mean correct and mean error reaction times in serial choice tasks.A reply to Smith and Brewer. British Journal of Psychology,11, 69–73.
Schneider, W., Dumais, S. T., &Shiffrin, R. M. (1984). Automatic and control processing and attention. In R. Parasuraman & D. R. Davies (Eds.),Varieties of attention. New York: Academic Press.
Shillito, M. L., King, L. E., &Cameron, C. (1974). Effects of alcohol on choice reaction time.Quarterly Journal of Studies on Alcohol,35, 1023–1034.
Tharp, Van K., Jr.,Rundell, O. H., Lester, B. K., &Williams, H. L. (1974). Alcohol and information processing.Psychopharmacologia (Berlin),40, 33–52.
Wilkinson, R. T., &Colquhoun, W. P. (1968). Interaction of alcohol with incentive and with sleep deprivation.Journal of Experimental Psychology,76, 623–629.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Additional information
This research was supported by the Medical Research Council of Great Britain (Grant G8221479).
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Maylor, E.A., Rabbitt, P.M.A. Effects of alcohol and practice on choice reaction time. Perception & Psychophysics 42, 465–475 (1987). https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03209754
Received:
Accepted:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03209754
Keywords
- Trial Type
- Reaction Time Task
- Choice Reaction Time
- Blood Alcohol Concentration
- Cohol