Delayed Reward Discounting in Alcohol Abuse

This paper summarizes studies that investigated the relation between temporal discounting and alcohol consumption. The first study compared heavy and light social drinkers, and the second study compared problem and light drinkers, on the degree to which they discounted the value of (hypothetical) amounts of money available after a series of delays. Heavy social drinkers and problem drinkers both showed higher rates of temporal discounting than light drinkers, and this difference was stronger in the second study. Both of these laboratory studies found that a hyperbolic function more accurately described temporal discounting than an exponential function. A third study evaluated predictors of relapse and continued resolution in problem drinkers who attempted to quit problem drinking without treatment. The outcome groups were distinguished by the preresolution proportions of discretionary expenditures they allocated to alcohol and savings. The data from these studies are consistent with extending behavioral theories of intertemporal choice to characterizing the determinants of alcohol consumption; they also are consistent with more general behavioral economic and economic theories of addiction that predict a positive relation between temporal discounting and addiction.

Empirical Separation of Physiological and Expected Effects of Alcohol on Complex Perceptual-Motor Performance

The role of expectancy in producing perceptual motor-performance deficits following alcohol consumption was investigated in a 2 × 2 factorial experiment. Forty male normal drinkers (1) either were or were not administered 0.414 g ethanol/kg body weight and (2) either were or were not instructed they were consuming an alcoholic beverage (regardless of actual beverage content). Performance on a divided-attention task requiring simultaneous pursuit rotor tracking and choice reaction-time responding provided the main dependent measures. Alcohol disrupted tracking performance and interacted with instructions regarding beverage content to influence choice reaction-time performance. Results confirmed previous reports of divided-attention task performance deficits induced by a low alcohol dose, but, more importantly, indicated that subjects\u27 expectancies also influence performance levels. These findings demonstrate the importance of controlling for expectancy effects in alcohol research, and suggest that alcohol and expectancy may influence perceptual motor performance through different processes

Alcohol\u27s Effects on Human Emotions: A Review of the Stimulation/Depression Hypothesis

Recent hypotheses hold that acute alcohol consumption sequentially stimulates and then depresses (stimulation/depression) the drinker\u27s emotional state as well as other physiological and non-mood-related behavioral functions. This paper traces the development of the stimulation/depression hypothesis as applied to human emotions and critically evaluates investigations of alcohol\u27s acute emotional effects in order to assess its validity. Although some evidence suggests an elatant (i.e., stimulant) effect of alcohol at moderate intoxication levels, particularly on the rising limb of the blood alcohol curve, it is concluded that because of methodological inadequacies in the relevant experimental literature, the stimulation/depression hypothesis as applied to emotions remains largely untested. Conceptual and methodological refinements necessary for testing the hypothesis are discussed, and potentially important nonpharmacological factors that may also influence postconsumption mood changes are identified

Alcohol consumption as a self-handicapping strategy.

Two experiments evaluated the self-handicapping hypothesis that alcohol consumption varies directly with individuals\u27 uncertainty of their ability to perform successfully. In a 2 X 2 X 2 factorial design, Experiment 1 manipulated (a) difficulty of an initial intellectual test (insolvable or solvable), (b) feedback regarding test performance (success or none), and (c) instructions regarding the difficult of a retest (identical to or harder than the initial test). Ninety-six male normal drinkers then received access to an alcoholic beverage (self-handicapping option) and to study materials (performance-enhancing option). The experiment terminated before the retest. Results indicated that when a performance enhancing option is available, subjects generally do not use alcohol to self-handicap, Experiment 2 omitted the study option and manipulated the test difficulty and retest instruction variables in a 2 X 2 factorial design. All 32 subjects received success feedback. Results showed that subjects use alcohol to self-handicap when denied access to a performance-enhancing option. With important qualifications, these data support the self-handicapping hypothesis of human drinking behavior

Differential Discriminative Stimulus Control of Nonalcoholic Beverage Consumption in Alcoholics and In Normal Drinkers

Investigated the validity of applying the internality–externality model of obesity to conceptualize the determinants of drinking behavior. 30 alcoholics and 30 normal drinkers (male prison inmates) consumed either a liquid, a food, or nothing (no preload) and then received free access to preferred and nonpreferred nonalcoholic beverages under the guise of a taste-rating task. Alcoholics were predicted to consume proportionally more of their preferred beverage (external cue hypothesis) and to be less affected by the liquid preload manipulation (internal cue hypothesis) than normal drinkers. Both alcoholics and normal drinkers also were expected to consume less beverage after a food preload than after no preload. Results support the external and internal cue hypotheses but not the food preload prediction. Although differences apparently exist between the way internal and external discriminative stimuli govern eating behavior and drinking behavior, these results generally attest to the viability of applying such a model to conceptualize the determinants of nonalcoholic beverage consumption. This conceptualization has implications for the development of treatments that address the alcoholic\u27s demonstrated vulnerability to external drink-related stimuli and lack of responsivity to internal stimuli

Alcohol, Expectancy, Cognitive Labeling and Mirth

Investigated the role of alcohol, expectancy, and cognitive labeling in producing positive emotional changes following moderate alcohol consumption. In a 2–3 factorial design, 96 male normal drinkers (undergraduates) were (a) given either an alcoholic (.45 g ethanol/kg) or a nonalcoholic beverage, (b) instructed that they were receiving either an alcoholic or a nonalcoholic beverage, and (c) either informed or not informed of common physical sensations that result from a moderate dose of alcohol. Ss were then exposed to humorous stimuli, and their laughter and self-reports of mood were measured. Hypotheses based on extensions to alcohol intoxication of the cognitive-attributional components of S. Schachter\u27s (1964) theory of emotion were not supported. Although both instructing Ss that they had received alcohol and actually administering alcohol increased Ss\u27 reports of positive affect, only the beverage content instruction influenced Ss\u27 laughter. Implications for current conceptualizations of the emotional and behavioral effects of alcohol consumption are discussed

Delayed reward and cost discounting

Participants (N = 28) chose between smaller, immediate and larger, delayed hypothetical monetary amounts in a cost and a reward condition. For both conditions, the choice procedure yielded equivalence points that measure the immediate amount reward or cost that is subjectively equivalent to the larger delayed reward or cost. Equivalence points from each of eight delays were used to estimate a discounting parameter for both hyperbolic and exponential discount functions. Hyperbolic functions accounted for more of the variance in both the reward and the cost condition, and delayed reward and cost discounting was significantly correlated. Participants discounted the value of delayed rewards to a greater degree than delayed costs. Previous research has found that substance abusers discount delayed rewards more than controls. Implications of the present findings for substance abuse and other health behaviors are discussed