Memory distortions and anxiety in alcoholism: a directed-forgetting investigation

Alcohol-dependent individuals and healthy social drinkers differ in their physiological, cognitive, and subjective reactivity to alcohol-related stimuli, the mnesic accessibility of alcohol-related concepts, inhibition abilities, or mnesic performance (F. Ryan, 2002; F. Stetter, K. Ackerman, A. Bizer, E. R. Straube, & D. Mann, 1995). The author investigated (a) cognitive inhibition abilities of alcohol-dependent individuals, particularly for alcohol-related words, and (b) the relationship between anxiety and cognitive activation of alcohol-related concepts in alcohol-dependent individuals by using the directed-forgetting paradigm item-by-item and list procedures. The author used a 2 (Alcohol Consumption: alcohol-dependent individuals vs. social drinkers) x 2 (Word Type: neutral vs. alcohol-related) design. Alcohol-dependent individuals had significantly more difficulty than did social drinkers in voluntarily inhibiting alcohol-related verbal stimuli. This effect seems to be general and nonspecific in alcoholism. In alcohol-dependent individuals, a high level of state anxiety was associated with significant difficulties in inhibiting alcohol-related verbal stimuli. Results suggest that anxiety is a key feature in alcoholism, facilitating the activation of alcohol-related concepts in semantic memory.