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Ambiguous Drinking Essay

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The drinking habit is ubiquitous in human societies, and notable for the best and worst reasons. More and more evidence that documents the effects of alcohol on the human organism continues to be gathered by scientists. As is usual with prolific research about one specific subject, there are some surprising and seemingly counterintuitive findings that leave scientists scratching their heads in confusion. One of the unexpected discoveries about the effects of alcohol is the seeming improvement of memory recall of recently learned information (specifically before the drinking event). This ironic observation contrasts with the prevailing literature documenting the detrimental effects of the substance to neurological health.

Ambiguous drinking

Scientists at the University of Exeter recruited 88 people for the study - 31 males and 57 females, all social drinkers. The participants underwent word-learning and picture memorization tasks before being divided in two groups. One group was instructed to drink at will the following night while the other group was instructed not to drink. The following day, all participants repeated the cognitive tasks. Scientists observed that those who drank alcohol the previous night performed better in the word-learning test than those who didn't drink. This disparity in results was only observed in the …show more content…

This unexpected discovery by could be useful in the constant search for new ways to ingeniously maximize human cognitive performance. Academic environments, especially educational environments, are filled with social drinkers who often abuse of the ritual. Promoting the short-term benefits of moderate drinking to memory could be a persuasive factor in new awareness campaigns against the harmful effects of excessive drinking among students. The same could apply for other environments as

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