Effect of Small Doses of Alcohol on a Skill Resembling Driving

Drew, G. M.; Colquhoun, W. P.; Long, Hazel A.

doi:10.1136/bmj.2.5103.993

Cited by 83 publications

(29 citation statements)

References 7 publications

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“…It should be noted that the first reading was taken when blood alcohol would have been rising and the second was taken when it was falling, so that the mean peak blood alcohol concentration would have been slightly higher than either of these readings (see Drew et al, 1959).…”

Section: Blood Alcohol Concentrationmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This is more marked on the first than on the second session, and, indeed, without alcohol on the second session, there is a slight increase leading to the three-way interaction. There is certainly no evidence from the mean correct response times to support the suggestion that the effect of alcohol is greater toward the end of a session, although it has to be remembered that blood alcohol concentration would not remain constant throughout an alcohol session (see Drew et al, 1959).…”

Section: Changes In Performance Within a Sessionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…For example, Drew, Colquhoun, and Long (1959) pointed out the methodological deficiency in several papers of failing to take account of practice effects. In a review of work published between 1940 and 1960, Carpenter (1962 concluded that the quality and sophistication of most experiments on alcohol and reaction time were very low.…”

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confidence: 99%

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Effects of alcohol and practice on choice reaction time

Maylor

Rabbitt

1987

Perception & Psychophysics

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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.Although there have been many investigations into the effects of alcohol on reaction time, few definite conclusions can be drawn from them. For example, Drew, Colquhoun, and Long (1959) pointed out the methodological deficiency in several papers of failing to take account of practice effects. In a review of work published between 1940 and 1960, Carpenter (1962 concluded that the quality and sophistication of most experiments on alcohol and reaction time were very low.While the majority of recent results indicate that "alcohol causes a slowing of reaction time in choice reactiontime tasks" (Schneider, Dumais, & Shiffrin, 1984, p. 15), exceptions include the results of Wilkinson and Colquhoun (1968) and Shillito, King, and Cameron (1974). The former study investigated the effect of alcohol on Leonard's (1959) five-ehoice serial self-paced reaction time task. This uses five lamps, arranged in a pentagon, each adjacent to one of five associated metal contacts. Subjects were required to touch each contact as soon as possible after the lamp next to it was lit. A correct response switched off the lamp and immediately activated the next signal in a pseudorandom sequence. There was no effect on speed and gaps (the number of responses made in a given time and response times more than 1.5 see, respectively), but more errors were made with alcohol, particularly toward the end of a session. Shillito et al. (1974) also found no effect on reaction time, and surprisingly obtained the lowest error rate, not for the placebo, but for a low dose of alcohol. However, in these and other studies (Huntley, 1972(Huntley, , 1974 Tharp, Rundell, Lester, & Williams, 1974), speed and error measures have been discussed independentlyand few have acknowledged the possibility of speed-error tradeoffs (SETOs), that is, the ability to increase speed at the expense of accuracy and vice versa. Thus, variations in response criteria can produce performance changes quite apart from the effects of alcohol. Jennings, Wood, and Lawrence (1976) investigat...

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Section: Blood Alcohol Concentrationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Changes In Performance Within a Sessionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Effects of alcohol and practice on choice reaction time

Maylor

Rabbitt

1987

Perception & Psychophysics

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“…In practice, therefore, ethyl alcohol has only slight effects on the brain. These slight effects, however, may have important repercussions in certain circumstances; for example, there is evidence that even small amounts of alcohol in blood are sufficient to impair the performance of tasks demanding skill and accuracy (Drew, Colquhoun, and Long, 1958). The amount needed to produce such impairment varies from one individual to another (Cohen, Dearnaley, and Hansel, 1958), but since performance begins to deteriorate with blood-alcohol concentrations of the order of 20-30 mg./100 ml.…”

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confidence: 99%

Observations on the distribution of alcohol in blood, breath, and urine.

Payne¹,

Hill²,

King³

1966

BMJ

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The effect of ethyl alcohol on the central nervous system is similar to that of a general anaesthetic, but fortunately, because of its high solubility in water, the amount required to produce the degree of saturation necessary for narcosis is greatly in excess of that commonly consumed. In practice, therefore, ethyl alcohol has only slight effects on the brain. These slight effects, however, may have important repercussions in certain circumstances; for example, there is evidence that even small amounts of alcohol in blood are sufficient to impair the performance of tasks demanding skill and accuracy (Drew, Colquhoun, and Long, 1958). The amount needed to produce such impairment varies from one individual to another (Cohen, Dearnaley, and Hansel, 1958), but since performance begins to deteriorate with blood-alcohol concentrations of the order of 20-30 mg./100 ml. (Drew et al., 1958) the factor of individual susceptibility is less important than the amount of alcohol in the blood.When the task is one which exposes others to risk, such as driving, then impaired ability becomes a social problem. It is for this reason that Governments in many countries have imposed a statutory limit on the amount of alcohol a driver may have in his blood. The law in these countries does not suggest that a driver with a blood alcohol in excess of the statutory limit is drunk; it simply states that it is an offence to drive when the blood alcohol exceeds the stipulated level. The situation is exactly analogous to that which exists when a speed limit is imposed. The law does not state that a driver is incompetent when he exceeds the speed limit; it merely states that an offence is committed when he does.The arguments in favour of restricting the alcohol intake of drivers are unanswerable, and in the near future legislation will be introduced in this country to make it an offence to drive with more than a given amount of alcohol in the blood. It is therefore important to know whether a direct determination of blood will be needed for law-enforcement purposes or whether the blood-alcohol level can be deduced from the amount present in breath or urine. Accordingly the studies to be described were undertaken to examine the relationship between alcohol levels in arterial and venous blood and those in breath and urine. Methods Experiments in DogsThe first experiments were carried out on 10 mongrel dogs of both sexes weighing between 6.7 and 15.5 kg. After induction of anaesthesia with thiopentone 5 mg./kg., given intravenously into a foreleg vein, the dog was intubated and anaesthesia maintained with a 4-5 litre flow of a 50% mixture of nitrous oxide and oxygen supplemented when necessary by 0.5-1 % halothane and administered through a semi-closed non-rebreathing system.Once anaesthesia was established a 50-cm. polyethylene tube was passed through the mouth into the stomach in three dogs. In the remaining seven dogs the tube passed into the stomach was guided into the duodenum through a small incision about 5 cm. long in the midline of the u...

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“…The results of laboratory experiments have shown a dose-response relationship between the driver's BAC and the impairment of cognitive and psychomotor functioning (Drew et al 1959). Although a strong relationship exists between BAC and impairment, the BAC can be measured much more accurately than can diminished performance.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 95%

Effects of Alcohol on Fitness to Drive

Jones¹

2014

Handbook of Forensic Medicine

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Effect of Small Doses of Alcohol on a Skill Resembling Driving

Cited by 83 publications

References 7 publications

Effects of alcohol and practice on choice reaction time

Effects of alcohol and practice on choice reaction time

Observations on the distribution of alcohol in blood, breath, and urine.

Effects of Alcohol on Fitness to Drive

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