kin discussion 1 pt 2

Study 2: Alcohol-induced performance impairment: a 5-year re-examination study in heavy and light drinkers.

This study compared 86 heavy drinkers to 69 light drinkers in their early adulthood to test if greater experience with drinking can lead to less impaired cognitive and psychomotor performance. The individuals in the experiment were brought in lab and either given a placebo or alcohol, then tested with a grooved peg board (fine motor skills) and a digital substitution test (short-term memory) in 620 laboratory sessions. The researchers found that heavy drinkers did indeed show less impairment in the peg board test, but not in the digital substitution test which tested for short term memory. The light drinkers did not exhibit tolerance on either task. This study shows that both heavy drinkers and light drinkers experience memory impairment from drinking and no signs of tolerance with increased alcohol use.