title: Implicit Alcohol-Related Expectancies and the Effect of Context.
abstract: The current study examined the impact of varying pictorial cues and testing contexts on implicit alcohol-related expectancies.
  
  
  
  Seventy-six participants were assigned randomly to complete an Implicit Relational Assessment Procedure (IRAP) in either a pub or lecture context. The IRAP exposed participants to pictorial cues that depicted an alcoholic beverage in the foreground of a pub (alcohol-congruent stimuli) or university lecture theater (alcohol-incongruent stimuli), and participants were required to match both positive and negative alcohol-related outcome expectancies to these stimuli. Corresponding to a 4 × 2 design, IRAP trial types were included in the analysis as repeated-measure variables, whereas testing environment was input as a between-participants variable.
  
  
  
  Participants more readily endorsed that drinking alcohol was related to positive expectancies when responding to alcohol-congruent stimuli, and this was strengthened when participants completed the task in a pub. Moreover, they more readily confirmed that alcohol was related to negative expectancies when responding to alcohol-incongruent stimuli.
  
  
  
  These findings suggest that alcohol-related cues and environmental contexts may be a significant driver of positive alcohol-related cognitions, which may have implications for the design of interventions. They emphasize further the importance of examining implicit cognitions in ecologically valid testing contexts.
authors: Department of Psychology, Edge Hill University, Ormskirk, Lancashire, United Kingdom.
authors: Rebecca L
authors: RL
authors: Monk
authors: Department of Psychology, Edge Hill University, Ormskirk, Lancashire, United Kingdom.
authors: Charlotte R
authors: CR
authors: Pennington
authors: Department of Psychology, University of Ulster, Ulster, United Kingdom.
authors: Claire
authors: C
authors: Campbell
authors: School of Health Sciences, Salford University, Salford, United Kingdom.
authors: Alan
authors: A
authors: Price
authors: Department of Psychology, Edge Hill University, Ormskirk, Lancashire, United Kingdom.
authors: Derek
authors: D
authors: Heim
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000428:Alcohol Drinking / Q000523:psychology*; D001245:Association Learning; D003463:Cues; D004777:Environment; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D014495:Universities; D055815:Young Adult