AGE AND DRINKING-RELATED DIFFERENCES IN THE MEMORY ORGANIZATION OF ALCOHOL EXPECTANCIES IN 3RD-GRADE, 6TH-GRADE, 9TH-GRADE, AND 12TH-GRADE CHILDREN

To advance the theoretical modeling of the development of alcohol expe ctancies as a parallel processing memory network, this study assessed expectancies and alcohol consumption of 2,324 children in Grades 3, 6, 9, and 12 from a large suburban-rural school district. Individual-dif ferences scaling (INDSCAL), a variant of multidimensional scaling, map ped expectancies into a hypothetical memory network format, and prefer ence mapping (PREFMAP) modeled hypothetical paths of association withi n this network. Throughout this age range, older and higher drinking y outh appeared to associate positive and arousing effects with alcohol cues, in contrast to lower drinking children, who appeared to mainly a ssociate undesirable effects. These drinking-related differences in th e organization of expectancy information are discernible well before o nset of regular drinking habits and may influence the development of d rinking in adolescence.