We report results from three experimental studies that investigated the independence of approach and avoidance motivational orientations for alcohol, both of which operate within controlled and automatic cognitive processes. In order to prime their approach or avoidance motivational orientations, participants watched brief videos, the content of which (positive or negative depictions of alcohol, or neutral) varied by experimental group. Immediately after watching the videos, participants completed self-report (Approach and Avoidance of Alcohol Questionnaire; all studies) and implicit (visual probe task in study 1, stimulus-response compatibility task in studies 2 and 3) measures of alcohol-related approach and avoidance. In study 3, we incorporated an additional experimental manipulation of thought suppression in an attempt to maximize the influence of the videos on implicit measures. Findings were consistent across all three studies: increases in self-reported approach inclinations were mirrored by decreases in avoidance inclinations, and vice versa. However, a combined analysis of data from all studies demonstrated that changes in approach inclinations were partially independent of changes in avoidance inclinations. There were no effects on implicit alcohol-related processing biases, although methodological issues may partially account for these findings. Our findings demonstrate that subjective approach and avoidance inclinations for alcohol tend to fluctuate in parallel, but changes in approach inclinations may be partially independent from changes in avoidance inclinations. We discuss methodological issues that may partially account for our findings.

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Addiction is a chronically relapsing disorder, and substance users frequently relapse when they encounter opportunities to use drugs. In this paper, we review evidence regarding the psychological response to anticipation of imminent drug availability, its neural substrates, and its relationship to other phenomena implicated in addiction. Naturalistic and laboratory studies indicate that drug anticipation increases cue-provoked craving and attentional biases for drug-related cues. As predicted by existing theoretical models, these effects reflect hypervaluation of drugs that are perceived as available for consumption, which is linked to activation of the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex that, in turn, innervates subcortical regions associated with reward processing. Drug expectancy is necessary for the formation of conditioned responses to drug-related cues and it modulates the strength of conditioned responses. Furthermore, the role of impulsivity in addiction can be understood in terms of its interaction with the response to imminent drug availability. These results have a number of implications for the treatment of addiction, ranging from government policies that restrict the perceived availability of drugs to novel biological and psychological interventions that could blunt the response to signals of drug availability.

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