Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, 1101 E 10th St, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN, 47405, United States.
Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, 1101 E 10th St, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN, 47405, United States.
Drug Alcohol Depend. 2019 Nov 1;204:107567. doi: 10.1016/j.drugalcdep.2019.107567. Epub 2019 Sep 20.
This study extends this literature on effects of working memory (WM) load on impulsive and disadvantageous decision-making by investigating the impact of WM load on drinking-related decisions in different incentive and disincentive contexts in a large sample (n = 821, 373 women) of young adults, 558 of whom had an alcohol use disorder (AUD).
Decisions to attend and drink at hypothetical party events that varied in terms of alcohol party incentives (high vs low) and next day responsibility disincentives (high vs moderate vs low) were assessed. Subjects were randomly assigned to either a WM load (n = 387) or no load condition (n = 434).
Analyses revealed that the WM load reduced the degree to which a high disincentive deterred attendance decisions; attendance decisions were more likely under WM load in the high disincentive contexts. This effect was not found in the moderate or low disincentive contexts. Additionally, a WM load increased the effects of high alcohol party incentives on both decisions to attend and drink. The WM load also resulted in faster attendance decision reaction times, suggesting that subjects were more impulsive under load.
These results suggest that a WM load had a general effect of disrupting the decision-making process, reducing the inhibitory effects of high disincentives, amplifying the facilitating effects of high party incentives on alcohol-related decisions, and reducing decision deliberation times (reaction times). This suggests that individuals under significant cognitive load engage in more impulsive and riskier decisions when deciding to attend and drink at party events.
本研究通过在一个包含 821 名年轻成年人（其中 373 名为女性）的大样本中，调查了在不同激励和抑制情境下，工作记忆（WM）负荷对与饮酒相关的决策的影响，扩展了关于 WM 负荷对冲动和不利决策影响的文献。其中 558 名参与者患有酒精使用障碍（AUD）。
评估了对假设的聚会事件的出席和饮酒决策，这些事件在酒精聚会激励（高与低）和次日责任抑制（高、中、低）方面有所不同。受试者被随机分配到 WM 负荷（n=387）或无负荷条件（n=434）。
分析表明，WM 负荷降低了高抑制因素对出席决策的抑制程度；在高抑制情境下，WM 负荷更有可能导致出席决策。这一效应在中或低抑制情境中并未发现。此外，WM 负荷增加了高酒精聚会激励对出席和饮酒决策的影响。WM 负荷还导致了出席决策反应时间的加快，表明受试者在负荷下更冲动。
这些结果表明，WM 负荷对决策过程具有普遍的干扰作用，降低了高抑制因素的抑制效应，放大了高派对激励对与饮酒相关的决策的促进作用，同时减少了决策的深思熟虑时间（反应时间）。这表明，在做出参加派对和饮酒的决策时，处于较大认知负荷下的个体更倾向于冲动和冒险。
