Next-Day Effects of Alcohol and an Additional Stressor on Memory and Psychomotor Performance

Abstract

This study aimed to investigate the effects of a stressor, white noise, on cognitive performance of subjects in the compromised hangover state. The study followed a mixed factorial, counterbalanced, repeated-measures design with noise, order of testing, and time of testing as between-participants factors and state during testing as a within-participants factor. Seventy-eight participants performed memory and psychomotor tasks the morning after a regular night of drinking and the morning after a night of no alcohol consumption. Forty-eight participants were tested in the no-noise condition, and the other 30 participants had an additional factor of white noise during both testing sessions. Measures of memory and psychomotor performance are reported. The stressor (white noise) resulted in poorer memory performance only when participants had consumed alcohol the night before testing (F = 7.45, 1/66 df, p < .01). Stress also had a detrimental effect on simple reaction time the morning after alcohol consumption in both the task with regular interstimulus interval (F = 4.61, 1/65 df, p < .05) and irregular interstimulus interval (F = 4.45, 1/65 df, p < .05). The five-choice reaction time task revealed that initial move time and return time were slowed by stress and following a night of intoxication, but these factors did not interact. Stress interacted with time of testing and state in the measure of decision time, indicating that noise has a detrimental effect during the hangover state early in the morning and a detrimental effect during the no-hangover state early in the afternoon. The addition of a stressor results in a significant deterioration in memory and psychomotor performance when persons are in the compromised hangover condition.