Fig. 1.

The effect of previous trial outcome (gain vs. loss) on risk-taking behavior for the alcohol (n=37) and placebo (n=42) groups. Risky choices were defined as 5–25 or 25–5 trials on which participants selected “25.” Error bars represent ±2 standard errors of the mean. Asterisks indicate significant (p<0.05) pairwise differences. Although both groups showed increased riskiness following loss versus gain outcomes (i.e., the loss vs. gain t test was significant for each group), intoxicated participants demonstrated this increase to a lesser extent than non-intoxicated participants due to a diminished trial-to-trial carryover effect for loss trials (i.e., the alcohol vs. placebo difference in risk taking was significant for previous-loss trials only)