Eight mildly intoxicated and sober male participants (0.0, 0.05, 0.07, and 0.09 percent blood alcohol concentrations) operated a punch press simulator after being at a given blood alcohol concentration for either 27 or 97 minutes. Performance under the longer duration was significantly more productive (yielding a higher percentage of correctly completed parts) than under the shorter duration. Additional analysis indicated significant effects of task complexity and blood alcohol concentration.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
AttwoodD. A.WilliamsR. D.McBurneyL. J.FreckerR. C.Braking performance of drivers under the influence of alcohol and cannabis. Proceedings, Twenty-Fourth Annual Meeting of the Human Factors Society, Los Angeles, October, 1980.
2.
GreenblattM.ShuckitM.Alcohol Problems in Women and Children. N.Y.: Grune and Stratton, 1976.
3.
HurstP. M.BagleyS. K.Acute adaptation to the effects of alcohol. Quarterly Journal of Studies on Alcohol, 1972, 33, 358–378.
4.
LeblancA. E.KalantH.GibbonsR. J.Acute tolerance to ethanol in the rat. Psychopharmacologia, 1975, 41, 43–46.
5.
MellanbyE.Alcohol: It's absorption into and disappearance from the blood under different conditions. Med. Res. Council (G.B.) Special Report Series, 31, London, 1919.
6.
MoskowitzH.SharmaS.Effects of alcohol on peripheral vision as a function of attention. Human Factors, 1974, 16, 174–181.
7.
PriceD. L.FlaxR.Alcohol, task difficulty, and incentives in a drill press operation. Human Factors, in print (July, 1982).
8.
PriceD. L.HicksT. G.The effects of alcohol on performance of a production assembly task. Ergonomics, 1979, 22, 37–41.
9.
PriceD. L.LiddleR.The effects of alcohol on performance of a welding task. Welding Journal, July 1982, 61, 15–19.
10.
RigterH.CrabbeJ. C.Jr., (Eds) Alcohol Tolerance and Dependence, Elsevier/North Holland Biomedical Press, New York, 1980.
11.
ShumateR. P.CrowthertR. F.ZarafshanM.The metabolism of alcohol in the human body. Journal of Forensic Medicine, 1967, 14(3), 83–100.