Alcohol attention bias in 14-16 year old adolescents: an eye tracking study
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ORIGINAL INVESTIGATION
Alcohol attention bias in 14-16 year old adolescents: an eye tracking study Casey McGivern 1 & David Curran 1
&
Donncha Hanna 1
Received: 3 June 2020 / Accepted: 10 November 2020 # The Author(s) 2020
Abstract Rationale Theoretical models regarding the automaticity of attentional processes highlight a progression of attentional bias style from controlled to automatic in drinking populations as alcohol use progresses. Previous research has focused on older adolescent and adult drinking populations at later stages in their drinking career. Objectives The aim of this study was to investigate alcohol attention bias in 14–16-year-old adolescent social drinkers and abstainers. Methods Alcohol attention bias was measured in social drinking and abstaining groups in an eye-tracking paradigm. Questionnaires measured alcohol use, expectancies, exposure and socially desirable response styles. Results Social drinkers fixated to alcohol stimuli more frequently and spent a larger proportion of their fixation time attending to alcohol stimuli compared to non-drinkers. Groups displayed differences in their style of attentional processing of alcohol-related information, with heavy drinkers fixating significantly longer to alcohol information across alcohol stimulus presentation and exhibiting a delayed disengagement style of alcohol attention bias that differentiated them from light drinking and abstaining peers. All social drinkers fixated significantly more than abstainers in the latter half of alcohol stimulus presentation. Conclusion Alcohol attention bias was present in this adolescent sample. Drinking subgroups are defined from abstaining peers by unique features of their attentional bias that are controlled in nature. These findings are comparable to those in other adolescent and adult social drinking populations. The identification of specific attentional bias features according to drinking subpopulations has implications for our theoretical understanding of developing alcohol attention bias and problematic drinking behaviours, as well as at-risk identification and early intervention. Keywords Alcohol . Adolescent . Attention bias
Introduction Cognitive processes in addiction In cognitive theories of addiction, automatic processes have been frequently highlighted and researched for their contribution to alcohol use disorder, specifically ‘alcohol attention bias’ (AAB). AAB is posited to contribute to alcohol misuse and dependence in theoretical literature such as the incentive sensitization theory of addiction (Robinson and Berridge 1993), which proposes that through the repeated consumption * Casey McGivern [email protected] 1
School of Psychology, Queen’s University Belfast, David Keir Building, 18-30 Malone Road, Belfast BT9 5BN, Northern Ireland
of alcohol, changes in the dopamine system occur, enhancing the pleasurable neurological effect of the substance. As exposure to the rewarding effects of alcohol is repeated, the same system begins to associate ‘wanting’ with alcohol-related info
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