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Alcohol Lab

Introduction

Alcohol is a substance that affects an individuals behavior when it is consumed. The

purpose of this lab is to introduce behavioral effects of alcohol by creating an experiment that

simulates the substance. For our lab, we were curious if hand-eye coordination would be affected

by simulating what it is like to be impaired by alcohol. To test this, we would examine how our

ability to catch a ball while simulating impairment compares to our ability to catch the ball

without being impaired. Before we started the experiment, we predicted that participants will

catch the ball fewer times than when they are not impaired because being impaired would affect

our ability to catch the ball.

Methods

Materials

Materials used in this lab include fatal vision goggles and a nerf ball. The fatal vision

goggles were used to mimic being drunk since real alcohol could not be used for the lab. No

other specialized lab equipment was used in the process of the lab.

Procedure

We began the procedure used to study the effects of alcohol on the body with a control

variable. Each of the four participants started by attempting to catch the ball 25 times in a sober

state. For each participant, the thrower and the catcher were exactly 15 steps apart from each

other. After each participant attempted catching the ball in a sober state, the participants repeated

the same procedure while wearing the fatal vision goggles to simulate being in a drunk state. Just
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like in the sober state, the thrower and catcher were both 15 steps apart from each other. While

two participants were throwing and catching the ball, a participant who was waiting for their turn

counted the number of throws and catches for each participant. The data was collected and

recorded to be analyzed later on.

Results

Our research question investigated motor control and hand eye coordination between an

individual in a sober state and an individual in a drunk state because we thought that there would

be a variance between the two states. We tested our hypothesis by catching a ball in both a sober

state and drunk state. After the data was collected, in the sober state (M= 25.00, SD= 0.00), there

was a higher number of balls caught than when participants were exposed to the drunk state (M=

18.00, SD= 4.754). The results showed that was not a significant difference between alcohol and

motor control (t(3)= 3.052, p= 0.156).

Discussion

After completing this lab exercise and reviewing the results, we concluded that there was

not a substantial difference in hand eye coordination while wearing the fatal vision goggles

compared to when they were not worn at all. Although the raw data results would suggest

otherwise and show a difference in performance, the p-value of the data collected was greater

than .05, therefore declaring that there was not a significant difference between the two test

trials. Since this was not an actual representation of being intoxicated by alcohol, there were a

couple sources of error.

One source of error comes from the fatal vision goggles and the idea that the participant

could determine in a part of the goggles that what they were seeing was actually in front of them,
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which made it much easier for the participant to be able to catch the ball. Since it was not an

accurate depiction of what it is like to be intoxicated by alcohol, some of our data and results

could be inaccurate. Another source of error comes from the inability to try catching a ball in a

sober state and drunk state. For some people, alcohol causes their reaction time to be slower

instead of impairing their vision, causing a ball to be a challenge to catch. During this

experiment, the fatal vision goggles split the scene in front of the participant into two or flipped

it while also distorting the image. Even though this method serves as a way to trick the brain into

thinking the participant is impaired in some way, it is not a way to accurately simulate the

impairment that alcohol causes.

Looking at future research, there are numerous ways to study how alcohol affects the

body and mind of a human being. One possibility could look at how alcohol can affect hand eye

coordination in athletics. For example, a player in basketball must be able to dribble the ball

while running at the same time, or picking up a dribble to deliver a sharp pass or to take a shot.

That being said, it would interesting to study how alcohol can impact a players ability to play

sports.