These mixed findings are indicative of a complex relationship between the two variables. Therefore, before attempting to study the relationship between BAC and self-reported drinks in naturalistic studies, it may help to first consider the hypothetical relationship between these two quantities in an idealistic setting. For example, assume that we knew the actual unbiased number of drinks consumed before the injury over the entire drinking occasion that lead up to the injury (i.e., not just in an arbitrarily defined period such as six hours prior to injury) which will vary across individuals. Call this quantity the self-report “gold standard”. In addition to this quantity, consider information associated with the drinking occasion including the time period over which the drinks were consumed, the actual pattern of drinking (e.g., slow steady drinking vs. concentrated drinking at specific times over the drinking occasion), as well as other characteristics such as the type of beverage consumed (i.e., size, strength, beverage type), whether food was consumed with the alcohol, what other activities the respondent was engaged in as well as other relevant individual demographic and
