title: The validity of different measures of automatic alcohol action tendencies.
abstract: Previous studies have demonstrated that automatic alcohol action tendencies are related to alcohol consumption and hazardous drinking. These action tendencies are measured with reaction time tasks in which the latency to make an approach response to alcohol pictures is compared with the latency to make an avoidance response. In the literature, 4 different tasks have been used, and these tasks differ on whether alcohol is a relevant (R) or irrelevant (IR) feature for categorization and on whether participants must make a symbolic approach response (stimulus-response compatibility [SRC] tasks) or an overt behavioral response (approach avoidance tasks [AAT]) to the pictures. Previous studies have shown positive correlations between measures of action tendencies and hazardous drinking and weekly alcohol consumption. However, results have been inconsistent and the different measures have not been directly compared with each other. Therefore, it is unclear which task is the best predictor of hazardous drinking and alcohol consumption. In the present study, 80 participants completed all 4 measures of action tendencies (i.e., R-SRC, IR-SRC, R-AAT, and IR-AAT) and measures of alcohol consumption and hazardous drinking. Stepwise regressions showed that the R-SRC and R-AAT were the only significant predictors of hazardous drinking, whereas the R-AAT was the only reliable predictor of alcohol consumption. Our results confirm that drinking behavior is positively correlated with automatic alcohol approach tendencies, but only if alcohol-relatedness is the relevant feature for categorization. Theoretical implications and methodological issues are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychological Sciences.
authors.forename: Inge
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Kersbergen
authors.affiliation: Center for the Study and Treatment of Mental Health, Department of Psychology, Ruhr University Bochum.
authors.forename: Marcella L
authors.initials: ML
authors.lastname: Woud
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychological Sciences.
authors.forename: Matt
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Field
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000428:Alcohol Drinking / Q000523:psychology*; D000437:Alcoholism / Q000523:psychology; D001288:Attention; D001332:Automatism / Q000523:psychology*; D001362:Avoidance Learning; D002755:Choice Behavior; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010364:Pattern Recognition, Visual; D011930:Reaction Time; D012307:Risk Factors; D013561:Symbolism; D055815:Young Adult