Citation

van Ravenzwaaij D, Dutilh G, Wagenmakers EJ. Psychopharmacology 2012; 219(4): 1017-1025.

Affiliation

Department of Psychology, University of Amsterdam, Roetersstraat 15, 1018 WB, Amsterdam, The Netherlands, d.vanravenzwaaij@uva.nl.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2012, Holtzbrinck Springer Nature Publishing Group)

DOI

10.1007/s00213-011-2435-9

PMID

21842158

PMCID

PMC3266508

Abstract

RATIONALE: Even in elementary cognitive tasks, alcohol consumption results in both cognitive and motor impairments (e.g., Schweizer and Vogel-Sprott, Exp Clin Psychopharmacol 16: 240-250, 2008). OBJECTIVES: The purpose of this study is to quantify the latent psychological processes that underlie the alcohol-induced decrement in observed performance. METHODS: In a double-blind experiment, we administered three different amounts of alcohol to participants on different days: a placebo dose (0 g/l), a moderate dose (0.5 g/l), and a high dose (1 g/l). Following this, participants performed a "moving dots" perceptual discrimination task. We analyzed the data using the drift diffusion model. Model parameters drift rate, boundary separation, and non-decision time allow a decomposition of the alcohol effect in terms of their respective cognitive components, that is, rate of information processing, response caution, and non-decision processes (e.g., stimulus encoding, motor processes). RESULTS: We found that alcohol intoxication causes higher mean RTs and lower response accuracies. The diffusion model decomposition showed that alcohol intoxication caused a decrease in drift rate and an increase in non-decision time. CONCLUSIONS: In a simple perceptual discrimination task, even a moderate dose of alcohol decreased the rate of information processing and negatively affected the non-decision component. However, alcohol consumption left response caution largely intact.

Language: en