The effect of alcohol hangover on choice response time

Grange, JA; Stephens, R; Jones, K; Owen, LJ

Abstract

The effect of alcohol hangover on cognitive processing has received little attention. We explored the effect of alcohol hangover on choice response
time (RT), a dominant dependent variable (DV) in cognitive research. Prior research of the effect of hangover on RT has produced mixed findings;
all studies reviewed relied exclusively on estimates of central tendency (e.g. mean RT), which has limited information value. Here we present novel
analytical methods by going beyond mean RT analysis. Specifically, we examined performance in hangover conditions (n=31) across the whole RT
distribution by fitting ex-Gaussian models to participant data, providing a formal description of the RT distribution. This analysis showed detriments to
performance under hangover conditions at the slower end of the RT distribution and increased RT variance under hangover conditions. We also fitted an
explicit mathematical process model of choice RT – the diffusion model – which estimates parameters reflecting psychologically-meaningful processes
underlying choice RT. This analysis showed that hangover reduced information processing efficiency during response selection, and increased response
caution; changes in these parameters reflect hangover affecting core decisional-components of RT performance. The implications of the data as well
as the methods used for hangover research are discussed.

Citation

Grange, J., Stephens, R., Jones, K., & Owen, L. (2016). The effect of alcohol hangover on choice response time. Journal of Psychopharmacology, 30(7), 654-661. https://doi.org/10.1177/0269881116645299

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Online Publication Date: May 10, 2016
• Publication Date: Jul 1, 2016
• Deposit Date: Feb 8, 2019
• Publicly Available Date: Feb 8, 2019
• Journal: Journal of Psychopharmacology
• Print ISSN: 0269-8811
• Publisher: SAGE Publications
• Volume: 30
• Issue: 7
• Pages: 654-661
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/0269881116645299
• Publisher URL: https://doi.org/10.1177/0269881116645299
• Related Public URLs: https://journals.sagepub.com/home/jop