Citation

Harrison EL, Marczinski CA, Fillmore MT. Exp. Clin. Psychopharmacol. 2007; 15(6): 588-598.

Affiliation

Department of Psychiatry, Yale University, USA.

Erratum On

Exp Clin Psychopharmacol 2008;16(2):177

Copyright

(Copyright © 2007, American Psychological Association)

DOI

10.1037/1064-1297.15.6.588

PMID

18179312

Abstract

Research shows that prior behavioral training in a challenging environment reduces alcohol-induced impairment on simple psychomotor tasks. However, no studies have examined if this relationship generalizes to driving performance. The present study examined simulated driving performance and tested the hypothesis that a challenging training history would protect against the impairing effects of alcohol on driving performance. The challenging training history involved driving in a visually-impoverished environment. Thirty adults were randomly assigned to one of three groups. Two groups were tested under alcohol (0.65 g/kg) after prior experience performing the task under either a visually-impoverished environment or a normal visual environment. The remaining group served as a control and was trained and tested under the visually-impoverished condition environment. Results showed that individuals trained in the impoverished environment displayed sober levels of performance when their performance was subsequently tested under alcohol. By contrast, volunteers trained in a normal environment showed impairment under alcohol. The findings suggest that differences in driving training history can affect a driver's sensitivity to the impairing effects of alcohol.

Language: en