Other research has shown, however, that the mere presence of conflict does not ensure that alcohol will impair performance. For example, Bartholow et al. (2003) found that alcohol reduced response accuracy on high-conflict trials in a cognitive control task (the flanker task; Eriksen & Eriksen, 1974) when most of the trials within a block were compatible (low-conflict), but not when most of the trials were incompatible (high-conflict). Other studies similarly have shown no effects of alcohol on cognitive control performance when most or all of the trials within a task are high-conflict (Gustafson & Kallmen, 1990a, 1990b; Tarter, Jones, Simpson, & Vega, 1971), or when participants are sufficiently motivated to perform accurately (Gustafson & Kallmen, 1990c). Finally, providing extensive training on a task can limit the effect of alcohol on performance. Ridderinkhof et al. (2002) found that when participants were trained to achieve a given level of performance in the flanker task (e.g., 15% errors), the size of the compatibility effect (CE; incompatible trial – compatible trial) in response time (RT) was not modulated by alcohol. The CE reflects the
