Effects of alcohol on cognitive performance measured with Stroop's Color Word Test.
An experiment was performed to test whether alcohol intoxication leads to cognitive disinhibition as measured by the Color Word Test. In psychoanalytic terms, it was hypothesized that alcohol would decrease secondary process functioning leading to disinhibition and so make it easier to perform a primary process function. 24 men and 24 women participated and were randomly assigned to an Alcohol group, a Placebo group or a Control group. The alcohol dose was 1.0 ml of 100% alcohol/kg body weight. No statistically significant differences were found on any of the three dependent measures, number of errors, number of hesitations and total time needed, except that men in the Alcohol group needed significantly longer time to complete the test. These results indicate that cognitive disinhibition is not valid as an explanation for alcohol-related changes in cognitive functioning.
Gustafson
R
R
Department of Psychology, University of Orebro, Sweden.
Källmén
H
H
D000328:Adult; D000428:Alcohol Drinking / Q000523:psychology*; D001288:Attention / Q000187:drug effects*; D003118:Color Perception / Q000187:drug effects*; D004193:Discrimination Learning / Q000187:drug effects; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D011597:Psychomotor Performance / Q000187:drug effects*; D012660:Semantics