Abstract
Recent findings in stress research indicate the necessity for examining the distribution of the operator's attention in complex tasks as well as his information transmission capabilities. This study examines the effects of alcohol and noise on a complex tracking and signal‐detection task with particular reference to changes in selective attention. The operator was instructed to give the tracking task priority. In noise tracking performance improved, but detection of lights placed on the periphery of vision was degraded. Alcohol had the same effect on peripheral detection, but tracking performance fell. It was concluded that the effect of alcohol on such simulated driving skills embodied two factors: the first an increase in attentional bias towards the high priority regions of the visual field, and the second a decrease in the information transmission rate. Since from the point of view of the tracking task these factors are mutually antagonistic, there may be an offsetting of the loss in transmission rate by more optimal dispositions of attention. The loss of peripheral awareness in this event is inevitable, and even at the low alcohol levels used was of apparently serious proportions.
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