Alcohol and the wandering mind: A new direction in the study of alcohol on attentional lapses

Abstract

This study examined the influence of acute alcohol on attentional lapses whilst performing a sustained attention task (SART). The sample consisted of 17 male and seven females. A dose of alcohol achieving 80mg/ 100ml was administered to subjects before completion of the task. Alcohol led participants to make more errors as the session progressed and report a greater incidence of mind wandering. Importantly, alcohol reduced individuals' ability to recover from a lapse in attention. Although the sample size is small, the study did enable us to gain insight into the detrimental effects of acute alcohol ingestion on mind wandering. The authors anticipate that through the use of thought probes in the context of the SART and a larger sample size, we hope to shed further light on this phenomenon. Key words: Alcohol consumption, attentional lapses, mind wandering, sustained attention. © 2007, by Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co. All rights reserved.