Ethanol affects the acquisition of information.

Two experiments were carried out on pigeons to assess the effects of acute ethanol (ETOH) administration on a delayed pair comparison procedure. ETOH disrupted performance at the two higher doses (1.0 and 2.0 g/kg, given orally). When the initial (zero delay) performance levels of treated and untreated birds were equated by (indirectly) varying the to-be-remembered stimulus' exposure duration, it was found that the impairment could, to a point, be overcome. This finding is interpreted in terms of hypothesis which suggests that ETOH affects the acquisition but not the subsequent storage of information.