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To link to full-text access for this article, visit this link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.addbeh.2005.04.016 Byline: Martin Zack (a), Constantine X. Poulos (a), Fofo Fragopoulos (a), Tracy M. Woodford (a), Colin M. MacLeod (b) Keywords: Negative affect; Alcohol; Problem drinking; Priming; Memory Abstract: Negative affect is consistently associated with pathological aspects of alcohol use. Priming of motivation for alcohol by negative affect cues may contribute to this relationship. This study sought to determine whether: (a) exposure to negative affect words primes actual drinking behavior; (b) this effect is related to severity of alcohol problems; and (c) these effects are moderated by gender and anxiety sensitivity. Prime words (negative, positive, neutral) were administered using a synonym generation task. Primed drinking behavior was measured in a taste-test procedure, using placebo beer. Drinking scores were significantly greater in the negative affect condition than in the other two conditions, which did not differ from each other. Problem drinking severity directly predicted priming effects of negative affect words but was unrelated to drinking in the other two word prime conditions. Anxiety sensitivity was unrelated to drinking in any condition. Even unobtrusive exposure to negative affect cues can prime drinking behavior in young drinkers, and this effect is tied to the severity of alcohol problems. Author Affiliation: (a) Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, 33 Russell Street, Toronto, Ontario, Canada M5S 2S1 (b) University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Ontario, Canada N2L 3G1

At the heart of homeostatic theory is the idea that explicit or implicit behavioral demands placed on physiological systems are required for the biological detection of homeostatic disturbances. The detection of drug-induced disturbances is required to drive the development of all systemic tolerance, both associative and nonassociative (i.e., both forms of tolerance are behaviorally contingent). A wide range of findings ranging from morphine-induced analgesia to ethanol-induced hypo-sexuality shows that contingent tolerance is pervasive and may be universal. The theory also stipulates that behavioral demands placed on the target system will govern the loss of both associative and nonassociative tolerance (physiological). The present formulation integrates contingent, associative, and nonassociative tolerance and drug-opposite withdrawal reactions within a unified theory.

The stress-dampening effects of alcohol have been attributed to ‘appraisal disruption’− decreased ability of stimuli to evoke threatening associations in memory. Appraisal disruption could apply to oneself as well as situational stimuli. This question was investigated in undergraduate drinkers (n = 90/Gender) with low or high anxiety sensitivity (AS; n = 90/AS Group), a trait linked with hyper-vigilance to threat. Subjects received alcohol (0.7 g/kg males; 0.63 g/kg females), placebo or soft drink and performed a speech about their appearance. Sequence of drink administration and speech advisory (threat) was manipulated between subjects: Threat before Drink, Threat after Drink, No-Threat Control. The Implicit Association Test measured self-relevant associations based upon time to classify positive and negative attribute words (e.g. Cute, Ugly) paired with self-relevant or non-self-relevant object words (e.g. Me, Them). Alcohol selectively slowed negative self-relevant decisions, regardless of other factors. Relative fluency of negative versus positive decisions (D) correlated inversely with state anxiety and systolic blood pressure immediately before speech performance, and correlated directly with severity of alcohol problems. These findings are consistent with the Appraisal Disruption hypothesis. Preferential impairment of negative self-relevant associations may decrease perceived vulnerability under alcohol and increase risk for alcohol problems in young drinkers. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Classical conditioning experiments which employ CS-US intervals shorter than the latency of the CR, and which therefore require interspersed CS-alone test trials to assess conditioning, are open to the stimulus-sequence-change-elicited (SSCE) OR argument. The form of the SSCE argument which denies associative status to SCRs elicited by the CS-alone test trials is here termed an "empirical red herring" because: a) the argument cannot be dismissed on purely logical grounds, but requires the assessment of evidence for its examination; b) the argument enjoys empirical plausibility in the minds of the scientific community, as evidenced by published statements in both experimental articles and textbook chapters on autonomic conditioning; c) critical examination of the evidence which apparently supports the argument reveals that while the argument has provided a fascinating byway in the progress of our understanding of SCR conditioning, it is now time to bid farewell to the argument since it lacks any genuine empirical base. In the course of examining this particular argument, both the advantages and disadvantages of such arguments for scientific progress are discussed. Finally, it is emphasized that if one wants to study multiple-response phenomena in SCR conditioning, then a longer CS-US interval is clearly desirable. Our message only is that if the aim is to study SCR conditioning defined as an increase in responding to a CS relative to some appropriate control condition(s) which is attributable to the contiguity of the CS with the UR to the US -- in its most robust form, then the short-interval CS-US arrangement should not be avoided on the basis of the SSCE argument which, on examination, turns out to be an empirical red herring. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The primary aims are to elaborate on and clarify two general issues which are raised in the context of assessing contingency theory: (a) the operational requirements and the psychophysical considerations for assessing autonomic excitatory and inhibitory factors in Pavlovian conditioning, substantive conclusion, based on an evaluation of the methodology of available human autonomic studies, is that these is no empirical support for the contingency "truly random" control procedure. In addition, contrary to the suggestion of striking analogies with the skeletal eyelid system, a latency criterion should not be used to deny associative status to first-interval electrodermal responses, provided that these do satisfy conventional behavioral criteria for associative conditioning, e.g., Cs+:CS- discrimination. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]