Real-world memory and executive processes in cannabis users and non-users.

The relationships between executive processes, associative learning and different aspects of real world memory functioning were explored in a sample of cannabis users and nonusers. Measures of executive component processes, associative learning, everyday memory, prospective memory, and cognitive failures were administered. Relative to nonusers, cannabis users were found to be impaired in several aspects of real world memory functioning. No other group differences were apparent. The absence of cannabis related deficits in those executive component processes and aspects of learning that are believed to support real world memory processes is surprising given that cannabis related deficits were obtained in real world memory. The present results are discussed within the context of neuroimaging evidence which suggests that cannabis users may exhibit different patterns of neural activation when performing executive tasks while not always exhibiting deficits on these tasks.