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Psychopharmacology (2005) 182: 160169
DOI 10.1007/s00213-005-0057-9ORIGINAL INVESTIGATIONS. George . R. D. Rogers . T. DukaThe acute effect of alcohol on decision making in social drinkersReceived: 1 March 2005 / Accepted: 11 April 2005 / Published online: 20 July 2005
# Springer-Verlag 2005Abstract Rationale: Many studies have reported the
long-term adverse effects of alcohol on executive cognitive function in chronic alcohol abusers, yet little research
has investigated the acute effects of alcohol in social
drinkers. Studies on acute effects report alcohol-induced
deficits on tasks that require executive cognitive processes,
with alcohol acting to increase preservative errors and
reduce planning.Aim: The present investigation examines
the acute effects of a moderate dose of alcohol on a
decision-making task that involves participants making a
forced choice between two simultaneously presented binary-outcome gambles. Methods: Alcohol (0.6 g/kg) or placebo was administered to 32 social drinkers. Participants
completed the task, making a total of 80 decisions about
gambles that varied in the magnitude of expected gains,
losses and the probability with which these outcomes were
delivered. Participants also chose between gambles probing
identified non-normative biases in human decision making,
namely, risk aversion for choosing between gains and risk
seeking for choosing between losses. Results: All participants picked the experimental gamble more frequently
when the probability of winning was high vs low, when
the gains were large vs small and when the losses were
small vs large; the alcohol group had an impaired ability
to factor in the magnitude of gains and the likelihood of
winning when the losses were large. Deliberation time did
not differ between the groups. Conclusion: These data
suggest that alcohol given acutely impairs risky decision
making. In particular, alcohol impairs ones ability to alter
responding in light of changing prospective rewards in
order to make favourable decisions.Keywords Executive function . Impulsivity . Matching
Familiar Figures task . Decision-making task .Risky choiceIntroductionA wealth of data documenting the long-term effects of
alcohol abuse on human cognitive function has reported
severe deficits in memory and executive functions (Joyce
and Robbins 1991; Tarter and Schneider 1976) in both
Korsakoff patients (Brunfaut et al. 2000) as well as in alcoholics (Parsons and Stevens 1986). The effects of alcohol given acutely to social drinkers have also received
much attention, and findings point to...