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Updated: Jul 16, 2026

The Motivation for Alcohol Reward: Predictors of Progressive-Ratio Intravenous Alcohol Self-Administration in Humans
Published on: April 28, 2022
Cognitive-motivational predictors of excessive drinkers' success in changing
W Miles Cox1, Emmanuel M Pothos, Steven G Hosier
1School of Psychology, University of Wales, Bangor, Gwynedd, UK. m.cox@bangor.ac.uk
Aims:
The purpose of this study was to identify cognitive (alcohol attentional bias, AAB) and motivational (motivational structure, MS; readiness to change, RTC) predictors of changes in excessive drinking.
Materials And Methods:
One hundred fifty-eight excessive drinkers not in treatment were administered a test battery and were re-tested 3 and 6 months later. The tests included the alcohol timeline followback, readiness to change questionnaire, alcohol Stroop (to measure AAB), personal concerns inventory (to measure MS), and a measure of family history of alcohol problems (FHAP).
Results:
High RTC predicted short-term but not long-term reductions in drinking; both low AAB and high FHAP predicted long-term reductions. MS interacted with both AAB and RTC so that the greatest long-term drinking reductions occurred among participants with adaptive MS and low AAB and among those with adaptive MS and high RTC.
Conclusion:
It was concluded that (a) both cognitive and motivational factors affect the likelihood of drinking reductions and (b) a complete understanding of drinking problems should be formulated in terms of both cognitive and motivational variables.
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