70 Effect of Alcohol on Psycho-Physiological Functions. 



factor of residual memory, it is to expected that the average R x time 

 would be proportionately longer than that on subsequent days. The 

 Rx average reaction times for the six days in order of experimentation 

 are, respectively, 21, 22, 9, 11, 15, and 2 hundredths of a second. 1 The 

 first, third, and fifth are for normal days, with an average of 15, while 

 the average for the alcohol days is 12. The advantage is therefore 

 with the alcohol days, but it is not large. Theoretically the "saving" 

 on the alcohol days would be somewhat diminished because of the 

 greater opportunity for the factor of residual memory to play a role in 

 shortening the reaction time of Ri and because the treatment of the 

 record is such as to make this position of Ri the starting-point from 

 which to measure the amount of "saving." 



Table 11, which is arranged in the usual form by periods and sections, 

 presents the memory data computed on the basis of the "saving" 

 between the first and second reactions as previously discussed. The 

 general average "saving" for the different days is given in the next to 

 the last column in section i of table ll. 2 On every alcohol day the 

 average "saving " is greater than that for any of the normal days. The 

 general average for the normal days is 87, for the alcohol days 106, with 

 an average mean variation for both of 34. 



Comparing the averages for the periods (see section i), we find that 

 those for the alcohol days are consistently larger in every case, period 

 for period. Normal and alcohol days alike show the greatest "saving " 

 in the first period, this agreeing with the results found by Dodge and 

 Benedict for their normal subjects, to which attention is called in 

 Appendix III of this publication. 3 



Since the "saving" on the first period is quite uniformly larger than 

 in succeeding periods of an experimental day, the differences (see sec- 

 tion ii of table 11) are almost invariably minus values. These are 

 smaller on the alcohol days, with the result that the effect of the alcohol, 

 as shown in section in of the table and determined by subtracting 

 normal differences from alcohol differences, is in per cent +10.9, +2.5, 

 -5.9, +28.0, and +57.0 for periods 2 to 6. The average is +9.0. 

 The probable correctness is small for periods 2, 3, and 4, where the 

 alcohol effect is usuallv most prominent. There is no consistent 

 change in the mean variation. 



From the data in table 11 it is evident that the "saving" is somewhat 

 greater after the alcohol than after the control dose, notwithstanding 

 the fact that the alcohol days were slightly handicapped by the fact 

 that residual memory reduced the "saving" score. 



The second method for the treatment of the record, as suggested on 

 page 68, consisted in measuring the time distance between the posi- 



1 These averages do not include the reaction time during the first period of the different days, 

 but only that in the periods which followed the giving of the control dose or the alcohol dose. 



2 These values are averages for their respective horizontal lines, omitting, of course, the first- 

 period value. ° See p. 140. 



