Implicit Alcohol-Related Expectancies and the Effect of Context

Rebecca, L. Monk, Charlotte, R Pennington, Claire Campbell, Alan Price, Derek Heim

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

9 Citations (Scopus)
81 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

Objective:
The current study examined the impact of varying pictorial cues and testing contexts on implicit alcohol-related expectancies.

Method:
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.

Results:
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.

Conclusions:
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.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)819-827
Number of pages9
JournalJournal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs
Volume77
Issue number5
DOIs
Publication statusPublished (in print/issue) - 7 Sept 2016

Keywords

  • Alcohol
  • Outcome expectancies
  • Context
  • Implicit cognitions

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