.01. Dependent t tests showed that alcohol group participants reported feeling less negative affect post-drinking compared with baseline (M = −1.52), t(22) = −2.82, p = .01, whereas placebo participants reported feeling somewhat (though not significantly) more negative affect post-drinking (M = 0.95), t(21) = 1.70, p = .10. NA did not change reliably from baseline in the control group (M = −0.22), t(21) = −0.43, p > .50. Additional paired t tests showed that the means in the alcohol and placebo groups differed significantly from each other, t(43) = .22, p < .01, but neither differed significantly from the control group, ts < 1.69, ps > .09. These findings generally support the notion that alcohol dampens negative affect (e.g., Greeley & Oei, 1999), and provide a basis for testing the hypothesis that effects of alcohol on error processing are related to changes in NA.
