Alcohol-related words of positive affect are more accessible in social drinkers' memory than are other words when sip-primed by alcohol

Alcohol-related consequences of consumption with positive affect an: claime d to be more accessible in memory than are negative, and to a limited exten t this has been demonstrated with recall paradigms. This hypothesis is test ed with a more robust recognition paradigm, the automated Stroop. A 3-facto r mixed design was used: between subjects factor was Prime (soft or alcohol ic drink); two within subjects factors were related to the Stroop word stim uli, Affect (positive or negative) and Alcohol-relatedness (related or unre lated). Sixty paid, volunteer, social drinkers took part. Binary colour cho ice RTs were measured and Stroop Interference RTs were derived in the stand ard way. Only correct RTs were analysed. Using a 2x2x2 ANOVA, a significant 3-way interaction was found (p=0.029) Words depicting positive consequence s of alcohol consumption had significantly higher interference scores than did words depicting negative in the group primed with alcohol drink sips bu t not in the group primed with soft drink sips.