Changes in cognitions for social drinkers in a naturalistic setting

Ten light and eight heavy social drinkers were used in a study designed to investigate the role of cognitions of light and heavy social drinkers during a normal drinking session in a bar. The results showed that there was no significant difference between the light and heavy drinkers for neutral and emotive statements, however, there was a significant difference between the two groups for alcohol dependent and alcohol non-dependent self-statements. A significant interaction was also found for groups x time for the alcohol dependent statements. No significant difference was found for the amount of alcohol consumed. The findings suggest that not all cognitions changed during a drinking session and that emotive and factual statements were unchanged. The results of this study confirm earlier findings which found differences in alcohol related cognitions between light and heavy social drinkers.