title: Speech processing ability in alcoholics: a transient impairment and its relation to field dependence.
abstract: Alcoholic and non-alcoholic subjects received a test of the ability to identify speech presented against competing speech (Synthetic Sentence Identification) and a test of field dependence (Embedded-Figures Test (EFT). Performance on the speech task (which involved auditory figure-ground differentiation) bore no special relationship to performance on the field-dependence test. However, cross-sectional and longitudinal data suggested that recently-drinking alcoholics are temporarily impaired in their speech-processing ability, recovering this ability after several months of alcohol-abstinence. A relationship between chronicity of alcoholism and field dependence was also observed. The latter relationship, along with findings on auditory tests, were discussed in terms of their relevance to the issue of whether field dependence is an antecedent to or a consequence of alcoholism.
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D000368:Aged; D000437:Alcoholism / Q000150:complications*; D001308:Auditory Perceptual Disorders / Q000209:etiology*; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005364:Field Dependence-Independence; D006801:Humans; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008875:Middle Aged; D010468:Perceptual Disorders / Q000209:etiology*; D011804:Quinolines; D013064:Speech Disorders / Q000209:etiology*; D013997:Time Factors; D014796:Visual Perception
chemical_list: D011804:Quinolines; C029216:2-amino-3-methylimidazo(4,5-f)quinoline