Low Blood Alcohol Concentrations and Psychological Adjustment as Factors in Psychomotor Performance. An Exploratory Study

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Abstract
Forty adult males selected according to their psychological adjustment scores on the Maudsley Medical Questionnaire performed on the same psychomotor task (Toronto Complex Coordinator) before and after drinking a mixed alcoholic beverage. One group with "better" and another group with "poorer" psychological adjustment scores had blood alcohol levels between 0.1 and 0.4 mg/cc, while 2 other similar groups had blood alcohol concentrations 0.5-0.8 mg/cc. To investigate the hypothesis that subjects (S) when having low blood alcohol levels may perform more "carefully", the change in a S''s slowness and accuracy of performance under alcohol, and alcohol free-conditions was examined. Slow performance was not observed to change as a function of blood alcohol level, of adjustment, or their interaction. The accuracy of the simple and of the complex movements involved in the task appeared to be affected to a differing degree at the same blood alcohol range. Evidence from the simple movements was suggestive (P<.1) and evidence from the complex movements supported the hypotheses (P<.05); that at blood alcohol levels between 0.1 and 0.8 mg/cc, better adjusted men consistently displayed more accurate responses, while the performance of the more poorly adjusted men did not increase in accuracy until their blood alcohol levels were between 0.5 and 0.8 mg/cc.

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