Dissociation of the acute effects of alcohol on implicit and explicit memory processes.
The effects of alcohol (0, 0.3 and 0.6 g/kg) on learning and memory were assessed in independent groups of male student volunteers. Subjects were shown a list of words and asked to form an image of a scene involving each word 1 hr after drinking an alcohol-containing beverage. Alcohol consumption impaired the ability of subjects to explicitly remember the words in a test of free recall. However, no impairment was observed if memory for the same material was assessed implicitly using a backwards-reading or word-completion task. That is, both alcohol-and placebo-treated subjects showed similar degrees of priming. The data indicate that alcohol's effects on memory are selective.
Lister
R G
RG
Laboratory of Clinical Studies, NIAAA, DICBR, NIH, Bethesda, MD 20892.
Gorenstein
C
C
Fisher-Flowers
D
D
Weingartner
H J
HJ
Eckardt
M J
MJ
D000328:Adult; D000435:Alcoholic Intoxication / Q000523:psychology*; D001288:Attention / Q000187:drug effects; D004305:Dose-Response Relationship, Drug; D000431:Ethanol / Q000493:pharmacokinetics; D006801:Humans; D007092:Imagination / Q000187:drug effects; D008297:Male; D011939:Mental Recall / Q000187:drug effects*; D010153:Paired-Associate Learning / Q000187:drug effects; D011932:Reading; D012153:Retention, Psychology / Q000187:drug effects*; D014706:Verbal Learning / Q000187:drug effects*
D000431:Ethanol