Alcoholics exhibit delayed P3 latencies to attended auditory targets but not to attended visual targets. Compared with nonalcoholics, alcoholics also exhibited reaction time delays in auditory but not visual oddball tasks (Pfefferbaum et al. 1991). Auditory oddball tasks in general appear to be easier than visual tasks. Therefore, the factor influencing P3 latency delays in these studies is probably not the sensory channel involved but rather overall ease of discrimination.
