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A battery of psychological tests was administered to 26 medical smdents in a counterbalanced cross-over design to determine the effects of an acute dose of alcohol on perceptual, perceptual-motor and cognitive capacities. The tests included: temporal acuity (critical flicker fusion threshold), perceptual speed and attention (Stroop), perceptual-motor coordination (Purdue Pegboard) , perceptual-motor speed (simple and choice reaction time), immediate memory (WAIS Digit Span), short-term memory (dichotic stimulation), and intellectual and conceptual capacity (Shipley Institute of Living Scale). Three general conclusions were drawn: ( 1 ) alcohol exerted a deteriorating effect on performance on all tasks except the Stroop, ( 2 ) retesting 48 hr. later showed that practice or familiarity with the task mitigated the effects of the alcohol, and ( 3 ) contrary to the hypothesis advanced by Jellineck and McFarland (1940), no systematic relationship was observed bemeen task complexity and degree of impairment from the alcohol.Although there is a vast literature pertaining to the consequences of acute alcohol ingestion, there is a surprising dearth of agreement regarding its effects on most types of psychological processes and capacities. ~u c h o f the reported discrepancy can undoubtedly be attributed to such methodological variables as practice, parameters of the task, blood alcohol level and level of pre-experimental skill (Carpenter, 1962 ) .The present investigation was directed at determining whether simple and complex functions are differentially affected by a moderate dose of alcohol. A second aim was to evaluate the effects, if any, prior practice on a task has on performance when subsequently tested during acute alcohol intoxication. Jellineck and McFarland (1940) have hypothesized that "simple functions are less affected by alcohol than complex ones" (p. 3 6 5 ) , but the evidence to date is inconclusive. Similarly, the authors (Jellineck & McFarland, 1940) have postulated that "within a task of given complexity, familiarity with the task tends to lower the effect of alcohol" (p. 348).This report summarizes our findings with respect to whether: (1) a moderate quantity of alcohol is deleterious to psychological test performance, ( 2 ) there is a differential susceptibility of complex functions to disruption as postulated by Jellineck and McFarland (1940), and ( 3 ) the role of practice in mitigating the adverse effects of alcohol can be delineated.Twenty-six experimentally naive male medical students, having a mean age of 23 yr., served as Ss. Experimental DesignSs were randomly assigned to one of two groups in a counterbalanced cross-over design. The first group (A-P) was administered alcohol on the first day and a placebo on the second day. The remaining 13 Ss (P-A) received the reverse order of treatments. An interval of 48 hr. separated the first and second test sessions. Alcohol Admini~trationSs were instructed to fast for 4 hr. prior to reporting for the experiment. The dose of alcohol consisted of 1.10 ml...

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The use of visual evoked-potential studies helped us classify a large subset of youths who exhibited out-of-control explosive behaviors. The findings suggest that a subgroup of individuals exhibiting explosive behaviors may have a predisposition for violent or explosive behavior that is an innate characteristic of their central nervous system. An understanding of the etiology of explosive behaviors permits the use of more appropriate intervention and treatment strategies.

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