Problem-solving deficits in alcoholics: evidence from the California Card Sorting Test

In an attempt to clarify the nature of the problem-solving deficits exhibited by chronic alcoholics, the California Card Sorting Test (CCST) and other measures of abstraction and problem solving were administered to 23 alcoholics and 16 nonalcoholic controls, equated for age, education and vocabulary. On the CCST, the alcoholics exhibited three types of deficits which appeared to be relatively independent. First, the alcoholics generated and identified fewer correct concepts than controls, although they executed concepts normally when cued by the examiner. Second, the alcoholics made more perseverative sorting responses and perseverative verbal explanations for their sorting behavior than did controls. Third, alcoholics provided less complete verbal explanations of the concepts that they correctly generated or identified. The differential importance of these factors on various measures of problem solving may help to explain the varied patterns of inefficient problem solving exhibited by alcoholics.