FAA Office of Aerospace Medicine
Civil Aerospace Medical Institute

Report No: DOT/FAA/AM-69/14

Title and Subtitle: Effects of alcohol on complex performance.

Report Date: August 1969

Authors: Chiles WD, Jennings AE.

Abstract: Nine subjects were tested on a battery of tasks involving monitoring (simple reaction time, choice reaction time, and meter monitoring), two-dimensional compensatory tracking, and mental arithmetic. Three workloads were presented--monitoring plus tracking, monitoring plus arithmetic, and monitoring plus tracking plus arithmetic.

The subjects ingested 2.5 ml. of an alcoholic beverage per kilogram of body weight two hours before testing; mean blood alcohol at the beginning of testing was 102 mg.%. Significant workload effects were found for three of the four measures of tracking performance, for simple reaction time, and for movement time in the choice reaction time task. Significant alcohol effects were found for reaction time in choice reactions, detection times for meter signals, and for three of the four measures of tracking.

There was a significant interaction between workload and alcohol in the case of one tracking measure--RMS error in the vertical dimension. Nonsignificant RMS error in the vertical dimension. Nonsignificant (.10>P>.05) interactions were found between alcohol and workload for absolute error in both dimensions as well as for reaction time and movement time in the choice reaction time task.

Key Words: ALCOHOLS, DRUG ADDICTION, PERFORMANCE (HUMAN), REACTION (PSYCHOLOGY), REASONING, MOTOR REACTIONS, INGESTION(PHYSIOLOGY).

No. of Pages: 12