Effect of Marihuana and Alcohol on Visual Search Performance
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Summary
This 1976 study, conducted by Moskowitz, Ziedman, and Sharma for the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, investigates how alcohol and marijuana affect visual search patterns during simulated driving. The research was motivated by evidence that perceptual errors are a primary cause of alcohol-related accidents, yet it remained unclear how laboratory-identified deficits translate to the complex demands of driving. The study utilized eye movement recording to analyze cognitive processes and visual search strategies under the influence of these substances. The research comprised two experiments using a driving simulator where subjects viewed traffic films while performing subsidiary tasks. In the alcohol experiment, 27 male heavy drinkers were divided into three groups with blood alcohol concentrations (BAC) of 0.0%, 0.075%, and 0.15%. An independent group design was used. In the marijuana experiment, 10 male social users were tested under a repeated measures design with doses of 0 mcg and 200 mcg of tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) per kilogram of body weight. Eye movements were recorded at 100 samples per second using a Biometrics system and analyzed via computer to measure dwell times, pursuit frequencies, and spatial distribution of attention. The results indicated significant changes in visual search behavior under alcohol. Subjects exhibited a statistically significant increase in mean dwell (fixation) time and a corresponding decrease in dwell frequency, meaning they examined fewer points in the visual field. Pursuit activity, defined as eye-following behavior, increased in both frequency and duration. Alcohol also increased the variability of dwell times, reflecting decreased control over performance factors. Notably, alcohol had differential effects on specific events; dwell times for flashing lights and traffic signals increased, while those for pedestrians decreased or remained unchanged. In contrast, marijuana had no significant effect on any measured visual search variables, including dwell duration, frequency, or pursuit behavior. The authors conclude that alcohol impairs visual search efficiency by slowing information processing, forcing drivers to spend more time on each fixation and thereby reducing the scope of their environmental scan. This deficit, combined with increased pursuit of moving objects, limits a driver’s ability to share attention among multiple hazards. The lack of effect from marijuana suggests its perceptual deficits differ fundamentally from those of alcohol. These findings imply that alcohol-related accidents may stem from a reduced capacity to monitor the visual field comprehensively, highlighting the importance of visual search metrics in understanding impaired driving.
Key finding
Alcohol significantly increased mean dwell duration and pursuit frequency while decreasing dwell frequency, whereas marijuana produced no significant changes in visual search patterns.
Methodology
simulator
Sample size: 37
Provenance
The full processing record for this entry. Every stage of this paper's journey through the pipeline is logged — what ran, with which tool and model, how many attempts it took, and when it last completed. Discovered via bulk_ingest_rosap on 2026-05-23 (6 acquisition events logged).
| Stage | Outcome | Tool | Model | Prompt | Attempts | Completed |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| discover | success | rosap | — | — | 2 | 2026-05-23 |
| archive | success | — | — | — | 1 | 2026-05-23 |
| extract | success | cached | — | — | 2 | 2026-06-10 |
| clean | success | — | — | — | 1 | 2026-06-01 |
| chunk | success | — | — | — | 1 | 2026-06-01 |
| embed | success | — | — | — | 1 | 2026-06-02 |
| enrich | success | — | — | — | 1 | 2026-05-23 |
| promote | success | — | — | — | 1 | 2026-05-23 |
| summarize | success | llm | qwen3.6-27b-prismaquant | summ-v5 | 3 | 2026-06-10 |
| tag | success | vector_similarity | — | — | 19 | 2026-06-11 |
| verify | success | — | — | — | 2 | 2026-06-10 |
Summary generated by qwen3.6-27b-prismaquant on 2026-06-10; verification: verified.
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- Empirical Findings: behavioral performance data
- Methodological Resource: measurement protocol