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Updated: Jul 18, 2026

The Motivation for Alcohol Reward: Predictors of Progressive-Ratio Intravenous Alcohol Self-Administration in Humans
Published on: April 28, 2022
Implicit and explicit measures of alcohol and smoking cognitions
Denis M McCarthy1, Dana M Thompsen
1Department of Psychological Sciences, University of Missouri, Columbia, MO, USA. mccarthydm@missouri.edu
Abstract:
The present study tested convergent, discriminant, and incremental validity of implicit and explicit measures of alcohol and smoking cognitions. College-aged participants (n = 264) completed questionnaire measures of alcohol and smoking expectancies and behavior. Participants also completed the Implicit Association Test (IAT; Greenwald, McGhee, & Schwartz, 1998) for alcohol and smoking on two occasions, approximately 1 month apart. Psychometric qualities of these IATs were evaluated. Modest associations were found between implicit and explicit measures for the same substance. Both implicit and explicit measures had unique associations with use. Discriminant validity was stronger for alcohol measures than for smoking measures. These results support the utility of the IAT as a technique for assessing implicit associations about alcohol and smoking. They also provide some evidence that smoking motivations may make unique contributions to alcohol use.
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