Abstract
Though studies have examined attentional bias for alcohol-related information among alcohol-dependent individuals, few have examined memory bias. This study examined attention and recognition memory biases for alcohol-related information among patients recently admitted to residential alcohol treatment (n = 100; 40% female). Participants completed a computerized attentional task wherein they classified a centrally-presented digit as odd or even. On some trials, an alcohol word, neutral word, or anagram was presented along with the digit. On these dual trials participants first classified the digit and then classified the other stimulus as a word or nonword. Participants took longer to classify digits that appeared with alcohol words compared to neutral words; suggesting the alcohol words distracted them from processing the digit. In a subsequent recognition memory test, participants showed significantly higher hit rates (i.e., correctly classifying an old item as old) and false alarm rates (i.e., incorrectly classifying a new item as old) to the alcohol words compared to the neutral words, and they also showed a more liberal response bias to alcohol words. The findings suggest that alcohol-dependent individuals exhibit both attention and memory bias for alcohol-related information.
| Original language | English (US) |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 1687-1690 |
| Number of pages | 4 |
| Journal | Addictive Behaviors |
| Volume | 38 |
| Issue number | 3 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Mar 2013 |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:Funding for this project was provided by the Hazelden Foundation out of the Butler Center for Research's annual operations budget. Content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the views of Hazelden or any other affiliated institutions of the authors.
Keywords
- Alcohol dependence
- Attentional bias
- Recognition memory
