Attribution Error

I think I understand why my doctor doesn't want me on stimulants.  Now, I'm no doctor, but I did study psychology in my undergrad.  What am I qualified to do?  Nothing, but it was fun.  Anyway, I always remembered reading in my studies about the attribution error (I'm pretty sure that's what it was called - correct me if I'm wrong).

Basically, here's the idea: if you give someone a stimulant, and tell them that you're giving them a stimulant, when they feel their heart racing, they will say, "the stimulant you gave me is making my heart race."  But if you give them a stimulant without telling them that's what you're doing, they may mistakenly attribute their racing heart for anxiety, anger, or some other emotion, when really all that is happening is that they've been given a drug that alters heart rate.  They will then look for the reason that they are experiencing the emotion, and blame it on whatever they decide is the cause.

I have been wondering (in my super-unqualified mind) whether I sometimes experience this with caffeine.  Sometimes I will consume caffeine in some way and later I will be very nervous about something - more than usual.

This morning I experienced this in a fun way.  I was exhausted, so I chugged a soda.  A while later I found myself thinking, "Man!  I'm really excited for the nap I will be taking this afternoon!"  This was likely a strange combination of the caffeine and the exhaustion.  But I really felt excited!  I figured the excitement must be about what was on my mind, which - of course - was the nap I planned to take later.

The nap was excellent, by the way!