The effects of alcohol cue exposure on non-dependent drinkers' attentional bias for alcohol-related stimuli.

AIMS

The effects of university students' habitual drinking practices and experimental alcohol cue exposure on their attentional bias for alcohol-related stimuli were assessed.

METHODS

Participants were exposed in vivo to either an alcoholic or non-alcoholic beverage immediately prior to completing a cognitively demanding emotional Stroop task that uses alcohol-related and control words as potential distractors.

RESULTS

Regression analyses indicated that, for participants who were low consumers of alcohol, neither level of habitual drinking, type of cue exposure, nor their interaction predicted attentional bias for the alcohol-related stimuli. For high consumers of alcohol who were exposed to the alcoholic beverage (but not those exposed to the non-alcoholic beverage), the amount of alcohol that participants habitually drank significantly predicted the degree of attentional bias.

CONCLUSIONS

The results indicate that, among non-dependent drinkers (unlike alcohol-dependent participants), alcohol-related attentional bias is not a generalized phenomenon, but occurs only under a specific set of circumstances.