Perceptual assessment of intoxication level

Abstract

Data are reviewed and summarized from ten perceptual experiments wherein groups of listeners assessed the levels of intoxication for various types of talkers speaking at specific windows of sobriety and inebriation. The speakers included both sexes. Subjects were selected on the basis of a number of rigorous criteria; they produced several classes of speech when sober and at three highly controlled levels of intoxication. Listener groups included prescreened university students and professionals trained in appropriate areas. The task was to judge intoxication level from speech samples. It was found that speakers were judged as drunker than they actually were at mild levels of intoxication but that auditors sharply underestimated their involvement for severe intoxication. Data from three subprocedures led to the identification of a number of trends. However, no significant differences were found when the judgments by men and women were contrasted, nor were they significant between professionals and lay auditors or between the classes of speech produced. [Research supported by NIAAA.]