Combined effects of alcohol and caffeine on agency judgment, impulsivity and risk

描述(由申请人提供)：拟议培训计划的总体目标是进一步发展我在物质使用和健康危险行为领域的知识和研究技能，并将其与行为药理学、方法论和数据分析的理解相结合。这一经历还将促进我作为科学家实践者的发展，使我的研究和临床培训最终将为未来关于物质使用障碍的病因学和治疗以及相关健康问题的研究提供信息。为了达到这些目的，候选人设计了一个研究项目，涉及三个主要领域的指导、教学和经验研究和临床培训：1)成瘾，2)健康风险行为，3)临床能力。申请者的目标是在以前关于物质使用和健康危险行为认知机制的培训的基础上，进行一个学位论文项目，将这两个领域结合在一个新的方向上。这个项目将是实现我的职业目标的重要一步，我将在学术心理学系寻求一个教员职位，在那里我将进行独立研究并指导受训者。拟议的研究培训计划的总体目标是清楚地描述酒精和咖啡因对年轻社交饮酒者的关键情感、行为和认知结果的联合影响。研究这种特殊药物组合的动机来自一篇关于咖啡因和酒精对主观醉酒和精神运动表现的联合影响的新兴但很少的文献。这些研究共同证明，尽管咖啡因只能温和地对抗酒精的影响，但个人感觉受到的损害较小，报告称更有可能开车或继续饮酒。这一观察结果可以由咖啡因的药理作用或个人对咖啡因抵消酒精不良影响的期望来解释。这项拟议的项目旨在研究：1)咖啡因是否抵消了酒精对风险行为、个人代理(自我控制)和冲动指数的影响；2)对咖啡因的结果预期影响了这些结果。行为数据将包括在一系列计算机化任务中的表现，评估风险承担和风险感知、冲动和对机构的判断。参与者还将完成一系列问卷，这些问卷将衡量人们对酒精和咖啡因的期望，以及状态影响等重要指标。数据将在随机对照的双盲实验室研究中从128名男性和女性中收集。我们预测，饮酒和咖啡因的人表现出的风险和冲动行为将较少，达到咖啡因确实或有望缓解酒精引起的认知障碍并提高机构判断的准确性的程度。这一领域的研究还处于初级阶段，鉴于含咖啡因的酒精饮料的流行，这一领域迫切需要。因此，这项研究将是第一批评估这些药物对危害健康的行为的联合影响的研究之一，研究结果可能会为公共卫生努力提供参考。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The overall goal of the proposed training plan is to further develop my knowledge and research skills in the areas of substance use and health risk behaviors and to integrate this with an understanding of behavioral pharmacology methodology and data analysis. This experience will also foster my development as a scientist-practitioner such that my research and clinical training will ultimately inform future research on the etiology and treatment of substance use disorders and related health issues. Toward these ends, the candidate has designed a research project that involves mentored, didactic, and experiential research and clinical training across three primary areas: 1) Addiction, 2) Health Risk Behaviors, and 3) Clinical Competence. The applicant aims to build on previous training in substance use and cognitive mechanisms of health risk behaviors to conduct a dissertation project that unites these two areas in a novel direction. The project would be an important step in achieving my career goal to pursue a faculty position in an academic psychology department where I will carry out independent research and supervise trainees. The general aim of the proposed research training program is to delineate a clear profile of the conjoint effects of alcohol and caffeine on critical affective, behavioral, and cognitive outcomes in young social drinkers. The motivation for examining this particular drug combination comes from a burgeoning yet small literature on the conjoint effects of caffeine and alcohol on subjective intoxication and psychomotor performance. These studies collectively demonstrate that although caffeine only mildly antagonizes the effects of alcohol, individuals nonetheless feel less impaired, and report being more likely to drive or continue to drink alcohol. This observation may be explained either by the pharmacological effects of caffeine or by individuals' expectations for caffeine to counteract the untoward effects of alcohol. The proposed project aims to examine whether: 1) caffeine offsets the effects of alcohol on indices of risk behavior, personal agency (self- control), and impulsivity and 2) outcome expectancies for caffeine influences these outcomes. Behavioral data will include performance on a series of computerized tasks assessing risk taking and risk perception, impulsivity, and judgments of agency. Participants will also complete a battery of questionnaires that will measure expectations for alcohol and caffeine, and state affect among other important constructs. Data will be collected from 128 men and women in a randomized controlled, double-blind laboratory study. We predict that individuals who drink alcohol and caffeine will manifest less risky and impulsive behavior to the extent that caffeine does, or is expected to, mitigate the cognitive impairments induced by alcohol and increase accuracy of judgments of agency. This area of research is in its nascent stages and is sorely needed given the popularity of caffeinated alcoholic beverages. Accordingly, this study will be one of the first to evaluate the conjoint effects of these drugs on health-risk behaviors and findings may inform public health efforts.