The impact of alcohol intoxication on extended vigilance and rest-break recovery

• Published in: Attention, perception & psychophysics Vol. 87; no. 3; pp. 998 - 1009
• Main Authors: Yang, Runhan, Patel, Trisha N., Fairbairn, Catharine E., Benjamin, Aaron S.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York Springer US 01.04.2025; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Adult; Alcohol; Alcohol Abuse; Alcohol Education; Alcoholic Intoxication - psychology; Alcoholism; Antisocial Behavior; Arousal - drug effects; Attention; Attention - drug effects; Basic Skills; Behavior; Behavioral Science and Psychology; Cognition & reasoning; Cognitive Psychology; Creativity; Decision making; Decision Making - drug effects; Drinking; Drunkenness; Ethanol; Evidence; Female; Humans; Intoxication; Male; Orientation; Pattern Recognition, Visual - drug effects; Psychology; Reaction Time - drug effects; Rest - psychology; Time; Visual Impairments; Visual Stimuli; Young Adult; alcohol; vigilance; Signal Detection Theory; sustained attention
• ISSN: 1943-3921; 1943-393X; 1943-393X
• DOI: 10.3758/s13414-025-03029-2

Alcohol has complex and multifarious effects on cognition. One means by which alcohol can influence a wide variety of cognitive behaviors is through its effects on attention. This study investigated the effects of alcohol consumption on sustained attention, or vigilance . We report here a high-powered study in which participants consumed either an alcoholic or a non-alcoholic beverage and then completed a spatial vigilance task, with half of the subjects in each condition receiving two rest breaks interleaved throughout the task. Alcohol impaired vigilance performance and also decreased the local recuperative benefit of rest breaks. Difference in decision processes were apparent, with intoxicated participants employing a more liberal and less optimal response criterion. These findings underscore the detrimental effects of alcohol on attention and provide novel evidence that rest is less effective following alcohol consumption.