Alcohol-related words are distracting to both alcohol abusers and non-abusers in the Stroop colour-naming task

Aim. To compare alcohol abusers' and non‐abusers' distraction for alcohol‐related and emotional words, controlling for emotional valence of those words. Design and method. The experiment compared 20 alcohol abusers and 20 non‐abusers in terms of performance on a computerized Stroop colour‐...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Addiction (Abingdon, England) England), 1998-10, Vol.93 (10), p.1539-1542
Main Authors: Bauer, Daliah, Cox, W. Miles
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adult
Alcohol
Alcohol Drinking - psychology
Alcohol use
Alcoholic beverages
Alcoholism
Alcoholism - psychology
Biological and medical sciences
Color
Distraction
Emotions
Factors
Humans
Language
Male
Medical sciences
Middle Aged
Psychological Tests
Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry
Psychometrics. Diagnostic aid systems
Psychopathology
Psychopathology. Psychiatry
Stroop Word-Colour task
Substance abuse
Techniques and methods
Terminology as Topic
Values
Word association
Words
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Summary:Aim. To compare alcohol abusers' and non‐abusers' distraction for alcohol‐related and emotional words, controlling for emotional valence of those words. Design and method. The experiment compared 20 alcohol abusers and 20 non‐abusers in terms of performance on a computerized Stroop colour‐naming test using alcohol‐related and non‐alcohol‐related words. Findings. Abusers rated the alcohol stimuli greater in emotional valence than the emotional stimuli. Therefore, differences in emotional‐valence ratings between the two groups were statistically controlled. Against expectation, both alcohol abusers and non‐abusers were more distracted by alcohol stimuli than by positive or negative emotional stimuli. Conclusions. The results indicate that alcohol words are distracting for drinkers in general, and this may indicate a high level of salience for these kinds of stimuli.
ISSN:0965-2140
1360-0443
DOI:10.1046/j.1360-0443.1998.9310153910.x