Frontiers in Human Neuroscience (Jan 2013)

The effect of alcohol and placebo on post-error adjustments

  • Klaas eBombeke,
  • Nathalie eSchouppe,
  • Wout eDuthoo,
  • Wim eNotebaert

DOI
https://doi.org/10.3389/fnhum.2013.00003
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 7

Abstract

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Several studies have shown detrimental effects of alcohol on post-error adjustments. In contrast to previous studies, which focused on only one aspect of post-error adaptive behavior, we compared the effect of alcohol and placebo on post-error slowing, post-error reduction of interference and post-error improvement of accuracy. Moreover, we used a between-subjects design (N = 45) comparing a control condition to both an alcohol and an alcohol-placebo condition as to disentangle physiological and expectancy effects of alcohol. In a standard Stroop congruency task, we found that intoxicated participants as well as participants with the incorrect belief of being intoxicated showed significant decreased post-error slowing compared to a control group. Furthermore, we found evidence for a condition-independent post-error increase of interference and post-error decrease of accuracy. The underlying mechanisms of the post-error adaptation effects are discussed in terms of the orienting account (Notebaert et al., 2009).

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