Attentional bias in addictive behaviors: A review of its development, causes, and consequences

Decisions about using addictive substances are influenced by distractions by addiction-related stimuli, of which the user might be unaware. The addiction-Stroop task is a paradigm used to assess this distraction. The empirical evidence for the addiction-Stroop effect is critically reviewed, and meta-analyses of alcohol-related and smoking-related studies are presented. Studies finding the strongest effects were those in which participants had strong current concerns about an addictive substance or such concerns were highlighted through experimental manipulations, especially those depriving participants of the substance. Theories to account for addiction-related attentional bias are discussed, of which the motivational theory of current concerns appears to provide the most complete account of the phenomenon. Recommendations are made for maximizing the precision of the addiction-Stroop test in future research.

The addiction-stroop test: Theoretical considerations and procedural recommendations.

Alcohol attentional bias as a predictor of alcohol abusers' treatment outcome.

Rationale
There has been considerable theoretical interest in attentional biases for drug-related cues. However, there is little research on the component processes of such attentional biases.

Attentional biases for alcohol cues in heavy and light social drinkers: the roles of initial orienting and maintained attention

A Motivational Model of Alcohol Use: Determinants of Use and Change

Alcohol abusers' and nonabusers' attentional distraction for neutral, alcohol-related, and concern-related (personally relevant) words was assessed with a word-word color-naming task. Abusers, unlike nonabusers, showed greater attentional distraction for alcohol-related than concern-related words. Exploratory analyses indicated that abusers who were more distracted by alcohol-related than concern-related stimuli (i.e., "alcohol distracted") responded more slowly to neutral words than "concern-distracted" participants. The results suggest that the relative degree of distraction by alcohol versus other personally relevant stimuli holds promise for understanding the cognitive and motivational processes underlying alcohol abuse.

J P Blount

Papers

Alcohol abusers' and nonabusers' distraction by alcohol and concern-related stimuli.