The effects of alcohol on serial verbal learning in chronic alcoholics

Storm, Thomas; Caird, W. K.

doi:10.3758/bf03330750

Cited by 38 publications

(7 citation statements)

References 3 publications

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“…It does appear that the effects of prolonged alcohol use are more focused on visuomotor and visuospatial processes. While previous research does report verbal deficits in alcoholics relative to nonalcoholics (Stark 1961;Storm and Caird 1967;Cutting 1976;Riege et al 1976;Heilbrun et al 1979), these findings are neither as potent nor as consistent as the reports of visuospatial difficulties (De Obaldia et al 1981;Paulos et al 1981;Goldman et al 1983). Sharp et al Offprint requests to: S.L.…”

contrasting

confidence: 54%

Event-related brain potentials in intoxicated and detoxified alcoholics during visuospatial learning

Schandler

Cohen

McArthur³

1988

Psychopharmacology

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Event-related potentials and visuospatial learning performance were examined to understand the effects of chronic alcohol use on complex information processing. A total of 18 alcoholic male in-patients in an alcohol treatment program served as participants. Nine persons were seen at time of admission to the program while intoxicated (mean BAC = 18.0 mg/dl). The second group of nine persons was seen detoxified after 4 weeks in the treatment program. Learning consisted of a paired-associate paradigm requiring participants to learn the distinct spatial positions of six, randomly presented "nonsense" shapes. The visuospatial learning performance of the intoxicated alcoholics was superior to that of the detoxified alcoholics. Evaluation of event-related potentials during the visuospatial learning task indicated that while both groups displayed greater right hemisphere amplitudes of P3, P2, N1, and N2-P3 components, the amplitudes of the latter three components were significantly greater in the intoxicated alcoholics. The overall results suggest that compared to the intoxicated alcoholic, the detoxified alcoholic may suffer a disruption in attentional mechanisms related to visuospatial information processing, providing support for a theory that alcohol ingestion serves to balance information processing in the chronic alcoholic.

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contrasting

confidence: 54%

Event-related brain potentials in intoxicated and detoxified alcoholics during visuospatial learning

Schandler

Cohen

McArthur³

1988

Psychopharmacology

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“…Since, however, the reward magnitude received under the nonalcoholic cue condition did influence the running speeds of the differential animals while they were inebriated, the possible statedependent effects were asymmetrical. This finding is consistent with that of several previous animal studies (Barnhart & Abbott, 1967;Berger & Stein, 1969) and human studies (Goodwin, Powell, Bremer, Hoine, & Stern, 1969;Storm & Caird, 1967) that have identified asymmetrical dissociative effects in which learning transfers from the nondrugged to the drugged state but not vice versa. Furthermore, this phenomenon is analogous to the alcoholic "blackout," in which the sober alcoholic is amnesic for events occurring while he or she was intoxicated but is sometimes able to recall them during subsequent drinking (see Goodwin, Crane, & Guze, 1969;Storm & Smart, 1%5).…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 93%

Simultaneous incentive contrast effects with alcoholic and nonalcoholic beverages as the discriminanda for reward magnitude

Cox

1981

Psychobiology

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Alcoholic and nonalcoholic beverages consumed by rats prior to runway conditioning trials served as cues for reward magnitude. Learning under the alcoholic (but not the nonalcoholic) cue condition appeared to be state dependent. Under both conditions, a simple effect for reward magnitude occurred, but positive and negative incentive contrast effects occurred under only the alcoholic condition. The symmetrical contrast effects seem consistent with the view that alcohol enhances positive states rather than reduces negative ones.The simultaneous incentive contrast paradigm involves training subjects to respond in the presence of two different stimulus cues, each of which is associated with a different value of a reward parameter. If, in the presence of the cue associated with the less valuable reward, subjects perform at a lower level than control subjects receiving only the less valuable reward, a negative incentive contrast effect is said to occur. Similarly, if, in the presence of the cue associated with the more valuable reward, subjects exceed the performance of control subjects receiving only the more valuable reward, a positive incentive contrast effect is said to occur. Negative contrast regularly occurs in simultaneous studies, while positive contrast generally fails to appear (see Cox, 1975).A variety of discriminative cues have been employed in studies of simultaneous incentive contrast effects. With animal subjects, however, the cues most typically have been a black and a white runway. Characteristically, experimental animals receive a small food reward in one runway and a large food reward in the other runway; trials are administered in an intermixed fashion between the two runways; and speed of running in each runway is the measure of performance.The present experiment also involved within-subjects runway conditioning for two magnitudes of a food reward, but the animals were always run in the same gray runway. For the experimental animals, the discriminative cues for the two reward magnitudes were alcoholic and nonalcoholic beverages consumed immediately before the conditioning trials. Prior research has indicated that centrally acting drugs readily serve as discriminanda in differential conditioningRequests for reprints should be sent to W.

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“…Alcohol has been the most frequently used drug in human SDL studies (Goodwin, Powell, Bremer, Hoine, & Stern, 1969;Storm & Caird, 1967;Weingartner, Eich, & Allen, 1973;Weingartner & Faillace, 1971a). Since alcohol reliably produces Requests for reprints should be sent to Herbert Weingartner, Adult Psychiatry Branch, National Institute of Mental Health, Bethesda, Maryland 20014. SDL effects, it was chosen as the tool with which to examine, in the context of an information-processing view of human learning, some of the fine structure of the behavioral mechanisms that might underlie the phenomenon.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Encoding-imagery specificity in alcohol state-dependent learning.

Weingartner¹,

Adefris²,

Eich³

et al. 1976

Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Learning and Memory

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A free-recall procedure demonstrated state-dependent learning using alcohol. Tests of long-term memory showed that both high-and low-imagery words were less likely to be recalled if stored while intoxicated rather than under sober conditions. However, information encoded and stored while intoxicated was more effectively retrieved when later tests of recall were performed while intoxicated, as compared to recall accomplished in the sober state. This dissociative recall effect was far more robust with low-imagery than with highimagery words.

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The effects of alcohol on serial verbal learning in chronic alcoholics

Cited by 38 publications

References 3 publications

Event-related brain potentials in intoxicated and detoxified alcoholics during visuospatial learning

Event-related brain potentials in intoxicated and detoxified alcoholics during visuospatial learning

Simultaneous incentive contrast effects with alcoholic and nonalcoholic beverages as the discriminanda for reward magnitude

Encoding-imagery specificity in alcohol state-dependent learning.

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