title: Differential effects of alcohol on working memory: distinguishing multiple processes.
abstract: The authors assessed effects of alcohol consumption on different types of working memory (WM) tasks in an attempt to characterize the nature of alcohol effects on cognition. The WM tasks varied in 2 properties of materials to be retained in a 2-stimulus comparison procedure. Conditions included (a) spatial arrays of colors, (b) temporal sequences of colors, (c) spatial arrays of spoken digits, and (d) temporal sequences of spoken digits. Alcohol consumption impaired memory for auditory and visual sequences but not memory for simultaneous arrays of auditory or visual stimuli. These results suggest that processes needed to encode and maintain stimulus sequences, such as rehearsal, are more sensitive to alcohol intoxication than other WM mechanisms needed to maintain multiple concurrent items, such as focusing attention on them. These findings help to resolve disparate findings from prior research on alcohol's effect on WM and on divided attention. The results suggest that moderate doses of alcohol impair WM by affecting certain mnemonic strategies and executive processes rather than by shrinking the basic holding capacity of WM.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychological Sciences, University of Missouri, Columbus, MO 65211, USA. SaultsJ@missouri.edu
authors.forename: J Scott
authors.initials: JS
authors.lastname: Saults
authors.forename: Nelson
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Cowan
authors.forename: Kenneth J
authors.initials: KJ
authors.lastname: Sher
authors.forename: Matthew V
authors.initials: MV
authors.lastname: Moreno
mesh_terms: D000161:Acoustic Stimulation / Q000379:methods; D000328:Adult; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D001307:Auditory Perception / Q000187:drug effects; D002492:Central Nervous System Depressants / Q000032:analysis / Q000097:blood / Q000494:pharmacology; D003116:Color; D003118:Color Perception / Q000187:drug effects; D004305:Dose-Response Relationship, Drug; D000431:Ethanol / Q000032:analysis / Q000097:blood / Q000494:pharmacology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D011939:Mental Recall / Q000187:drug effects*; D010775:Photic Stimulation / Q000379:methods; D011581:Psychological Tests; D012153:Retention, Psychology / Q000187:drug effects*; D012737:Sex Factors; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D013997:Time Factors
chemical_list: D002492:Central Nervous System Depressants; D000431:Ethanol