Elizabeth S. Parker

Retrograde enhancement of human memory with alcohol

In two experiments with normal male subjects, the ingestion of alcohol (1 ml/kg) immediately after learning significantly improved subsequent remembering. By comparison, marijuana (15 mg) had no significant post-acquisition effect. Facilitation of visual and verbal memory with alcohol under these conditions has implications for the interference and consolidation views of memory.

The alcohol facilitation effect on memory: A dose-response study

Sixteen normal male subjects participated in four sessions where they studied a set of pictures followed by either placebo, 0.025, 0.50, or 1.0 ml/kg alcohol. Later, when sober, recognition memory was tested. These doses resulted in peak blood alcohol concentrations (BAC) of 0.00, 0.018, 0.034, and 0.067 g/100 ml, respectively. The 1.0 and 0.50 ml/kg doses significantly improved memory for pictures studied before drinking. Alcohol appears to enhance memory directly rather than indirectly via a reduction in interference. It is suggested that a particular phase of the rising blood alcohol curve (0.02–0.03 g/100 ml) facilitates trace consolidation. The facilitating and possibly excitatory effects of alcohol may be important for understanding the rewarding aspects of drinking.

Alcohol and affect in dyadic social interaction

&NA; The effects of alcohol on emotional behavior during social interaction were studied in an experiment utilizing unstructured discussions between male‐female couples. All subjects participated in an alcohol (1.0 ml/kg) and placebo session, and a small number took part in a third higher dose session (1.5 ml/kg). Quantitative and qualitative ratings of affect were made from the recorded interactions. Alcohol produced significant increases in the affects of elation—giddiness and happiness—and an overall increase in total emotional expression. Only some aspects of anxiety were affected by alcohol. Hostility and aggressiveness were not increased on two quantitative measures but showed a significant increase on qualitative scores in the low dose session. Although there was no consistent relationship between blood alcohol level and emotional response, drinking history significantly altered emotional response to alcohol (tolerance effects). The euphoric effects of alcohol that we found are discussed in terms of the unique aspects of the experimental situation employed. Some important variable are delineated that may influence responses to alcohol.

Intact Retention in Acute Alcohol Amnesia

Research on alcohol amnesia has focused on memory processes that are disrupted during intoxication. The present experiment examined the possibility that certain memory processes might be resistant to the amnesic effects of alcohol. Intoxicated and sober subjects studied a list of 29 words. They were then given one of three different retention tests: free recall, identification of degraded words based on the procedure used by Warrington and Weiskrantz (1970), and yes/no recognition. As expected, free recall was significantly impaired by alcohol intoxication. In contrast, in the identification test, intoxicated subjects benefited to the same degree as sober subjects from prior exposure to the items. The two groups did not differ in immediate recognition memory. The results of the free-recall and identification tasks are similar to findings with chronic amnesic patients and suggest that perceptual fluency is not affected by alcohol, whereas elaborative processes supporting recall are particularly sensitive to disruption during intoxication. The failure to find recognition impairment at the level of intoxication used in this study distinguishes temporary alcohol amnesia from chronic amnesia.

Alcohol Use and Cognitive Loss among Employed Men and Women

A representative sample of 1,367 employed men and women in Detroit responded to questions about their drinking practices and then completed a cognitive test which measures abstraction abilities. Abstraction, tested while respondents were sober, decreased significantly as reported quantity of alcohol usually consumed per drinking occasion increased. (Am J Public Health 1983; 73:521-526.)

Sex roles and alcohol consumption: a research note

Inconsistencies in the role sets of women in modern societies are believed by some to account for the difference in rates of mental illness between men and women. In an analysis of rates of neurotic disorders and functional psychoses, Gove (1972) found that the higher rates of mental illness for women, compared to those of men, were due to disproportionately high rates among married women. Gove and Tudor (1973) maintain that the reason for this is that married women are more likely to occupy conflicting role sets. They contend that the role of the housewife involves unskilled labor and low status, both of which are often not consonant with a womans intellectual attainment. In addition, they argue that the married woman who works outside the home occupies a conflicting role set when her employment involves discrimination in the job market and assignment to positions that are not commensurate with her educational background. Gove and Tudor constructed their roleconflict model to explain mental health differences between women and men, but others have questioned this application. A persistent criticism has been that such between-gender

Memory facilitation by post-training injection of ethanol

Immediate post-training IP injection of ethanol (0.75–4.5 g/kg) significantly enhanced retention of a one-trial passive avoidance task in mice compared to saline controls. Ethanol (4.5 g/kg) in the absence of footshock did not affect test performance. The memory facilitation may reflect ethanols effects on neurotransmitter, macromolecular, or hormonal systems, or a reduction in interference.

On elaboration and alcohol

This study explored the effect of alcohol intoxication on elaborative processing and memory. Intoxicated and sober subjects were provided with “precise” or “imprecise” elaborators, or they generated their own elaborators. Precise elaborators facilitated recall for sober subjects but did not improve performance of intoxicated subjects. This deficiency in using precision was demonstrated with self-generated as well as experimenter-provided elaborators. Intoxicated subjects, however, did not generate more imprecise elaborators than sober subjects. The results suggest that alcohol intoxication does not disrupt activation of preexisting semantic structures, but it impedes the integration of incoming information with these structures.

Alcohol and storage deficits: Kind of processing?

Three experiments were performed to test an explanation of alcohol-induced storage deficits that was based on the proposition that alcohol intoxication affects the kind of information-processing strategies employed by the learner. Incidental-learning procedures were used, and processing activities were manipulated through orienting task instructions. The manipulation of type of processing (phonemic or semantic), opportunity to process, and complexity of the semantic context failed to eliminate or reduce the detrimental effects of alcohol on recall performance. In all experiments, however, the pattern of results with respect to the effectiveness of encoding variables replicated the findings of numerous previous investigations (e.g., Craik & Tulving, 1975 ). The results suggest that differences in kinds of processing do not explain alcohols negative effects on memory.

Neuropsychological consequences of posttreatment drinking behavior in male alcoholics.

A prospective study was designed to determine the neuropsychological consequences of continued alcohol consumption after treatment for alcoholism. Performance on 24 commonly used clinical neuropsychological tests was examined in 56 male alcoholics approximately 7 months after completion of an inpatient alcoholism treatment program. Abstainers (n = 17) performed better than those who resumed alcohol consumption. Although there was a significant decrease in alcohol consumption, posttreatment drinking behavior still predicted cognitive performance, with increased frequency and quantity per occasion having more deleterious consequences even at consumption levels that are deemed by some to be socially acceptable. It is concluded that alcohol consumption by former alcoholics might serve to maintain cognitive performance at reduced levels, and that this possibility should be considered in determining appropriate treatment goals for alcoholic patients.