The impact of alcohol on the different components of working memory
Date
2018
Authors
Opperman, I
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Abstract
Alcohol consumption related deficits on complex executive functions and short-term memory
have been reported in the literature, usually based on group comparisons. A repeated measures
design was used, assessing 21 to 35 year old male participants (n = 16) on the Automated
Working Memory Assessment’s twelve verbal and visuo-spatial short-term and working
memory subtests. A low dose of alcohol (13.6 grams) was administered, breath alcohol
concentration (BAC) was measured and subjective feelings of stimulation were assessed on the
Brief Biphasic Alcohol Effects Scale (B-BAES). Repeated measures analysis of (co)variance
models indicated that performance improved on the working memory processing tasks,
particularly in the verbal domain. This may have been related to changes in attention functions,
stimulus evaluation task demands and tacit recall. However, several of the short-term memory
tasks deteriorated under the experimental condition, where Word Recall was significant when
age was controlled for. This may have been due to alcohol-related changes in stimulus
representations. Partial correlation coefficients suggested that higher BACs were related to
deficits in performance if participant age was controlled for. The structure of the B-BAES was
consistent with the literature, but subjective feelings of stimulation were not associated with
performance changes. Shorter test-retest delays were slightly associated with improved
performance, but the research data did not fully support practice effects or a mitigating
influence of alcohol consumption. Based on the findings, the specific influence of alcohol
consumption on working memory could depend on methodological design, task types, memory
domain and other sources of variance.
Description
A thesis submitted to the Faculty of Humanities, in fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of
Philosophy, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2018
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Citation
Opperman, Ingrid (2018) The impact of alcohol on the different components of working memory, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, https://hdl.handle.net/10539/28407