Dataset for 'The morning after the night before: Alcohol-induced blackouts impair next day recall in sober young adults'

Abstract

This data set examines memory performance in young adults after experiencing an alcohol-induced memory blackout (MBO). We aimed to test (1) the hypothesis that high frequency blackout people may be impaired in memory functioning, either when sober, or when intoxicated (as suggested by Wetherill & Fromme, 2011, and Hartzler & Fromme, 2003), and (2) whether an MBO impairs memory performance beyond the duration of the blackout itself. Our data are highly novel because not only did we collect data from a sample of participants when sober and after drinking alcohol, but we also collected data shortly after the same individuals experienced a blackout (but were sober again). Our results suggest that acute blackout episodes impair episodic memory functioning the next day when sober, with the greatest deficits observed in tasks which were more cognitively demanding. We include data for three experiments - Free Recall, Serial Recall, and Depth of Encoding. Each experiment has a corresponding Excel workbook which includes raw data for conducted main analysis, plus supplementary analysis. A results summary sheet which includes statistical model outputs is also attached.