All participants were required to have a BrAC of zero immediately prior to the alcohol administration and participants who were regular smokers were allowed to smoke immediately prior to the infusions. Given the importance of effectively controlling blood alcohol levels (Li et al., 2001; O’Connor et al., 1998; Ramchandani et al., 1999), alcohol was administered intravenously using an established nomogram that takes into account participants’ sex and weight (Ray and Hutchison, 2004; Ray et al., 2007). The infusion was performed using a 5% ethanol IV solution. Infusion rates were: 0.166-ml/minute × weight, in kilograms, for males, and 0.126-ml/minute × weight, for females. Target BrACswere: 0.02, 0.04, and 0.06 g/dl. These BrAC targets were selected in order to stay consistent with our previous work with heavy drinkers (Ray and Hutchison, 2004). Upon reaching each of the target BrAC levels, participants’ infusion rates were reduced to half in order to maintain stable BrAC during testing. Specifically, participants were maintained at each target BrAC for an average of 7.32 minutes (SD = 3.03), during which they completed the study assessments. Participants were required to have a BrAC ≤ 0.02 g/dl before leaving the laboratory (or a BrAC = 0.00 g/dl if driving).
