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Published on: January 5, 2018
Alcohol-related memory associations in positive and negative affect situations: drinking motives, working memory
Elske Salemink1, Reinout W Wiers1
1Department of Developmental Psychology, Cognitive Science Centre Amsterdam, University of Amsterdam.
Abstract:
Although studies on explicit alcohol cognitions have identified positive and negative reinforcing drinking motives that are differentially related to drinking indices, such a distinction has received less attention in studies on implicit cognitions. An alcohol-related Word-Sentence Association Task was used to assess implicit alcohol-related memory associations in positive and negative affect situations in 92 participants. Results revealed that enhancement motives were specifically associated with the endorsement of alcohol words in positive affect situations and coping motives were associated with the endorsement of alcohol words in negative affect situations. Furthermore, alcohol associations in positive affect situations predicted prospective alcohol use and number of binges, depending on levels of working memory capacity. The current findings shed more light on the underpinnings of alcohol use and suggest that implicit memory processes and working memory capacity might be important targets for intervention.
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