The transfer of alcohol tolerance, and its relation to reinforcement

Four groups of five male social drinkers were trained on two different psychomotor tasks, a Pursuit Rotor (PR) and a Tracometer (T). They subsequently attended five drinking sessions where the same dose, 0.66 g absolute alcohol (ab alc)/kg, was administered. During these sessions, groups E and R received 'tolerance training' on the PR task by performing it under drug and receiving 25 cents reinforcement each time their score under alcohol was comparable to their drug-free level of achievement. The other two groups served as controls; group P performed the PR under alcohol but without reinforcement, and group A performed the PR with reinforcement but before alcohol was administered. The reduction of the drug-induced impairment of PR performance from Session 1-5 confirmed that groups E and R displayed significantly more tolerance than the controls. The effect of reinforcement on tolerance transfer to the T task was tested on Session 5. Groups E, P and A received reinforcement for T performance, and group R received no reinforcement. Since the E group displayed significantly more transfer of tolerance than the remaining three groups, the evidence confirmed the prediction that alcohol tolerance acquired via reinforced practice under drug transfers to a new task most readily when this reinforcement is also present.