Alcohol affects processing of ignored stimuli in a negative priming paradigm.
OBJECTIVE
This research examined the effect of alcohol on negative priming, which is considered to reflect a basic process of selective attention.


METHODS
Male social drinkers (N = 28) performed a color naming reaction time (RT) task that measured negative priming. After a baseline test on the task, they received either 0.56 g/kg of alcohol or a placebo; they then performed the task twice.


RESULTS
In accord with the hypotheses, alcohol suppressed negative priming during the ascending limb but not during the descending limb of the blood alcohol curve. No suppression of negative priming was evident under placebo.


CONCLUSIONS
The suppression of this process by alcohol may represent a basic mechanism by which the drug reduces the ability to efficiently allocate attention and leads to impaired performance on various attention-based tasks (e.g., divided attention and vigilance tasks).
Fillmore
M T
MT
Department of Psychology, University of Kentucky, Lexington 40506-0044, USA.
Dixon
M J
MJ
Schweizer
T A
TA
D000328:Adult; D000428:Alcohol Drinking / Q000097:blood / Q000523:psychology*; D001288:Attention / Q000187:drug effects*; D002492:Central Nervous System Depressants / Q000097:blood / Q000494:pharmacology*; D000431:Ethanol / Q000097:blood / Q000494:pharmacology*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D011930:Reaction Time / Q000187:drug effects*; D012054:Reinforcement, Psychology; D013647:Task Performance and Analysis
D002492:Central Nervous System Depressants; D000431:Ethanol