Interference effects in chronic alcoholism.

This study investigated underlying mechanisms of the verbal memory disorder associated with chronic alcoholism. Previous investigations have suggested that alcoholics are more vulnerable to interference effects on verbal learning and memory tasks, both with respect to retroactive interference (RI) and proactive interference (PI); this was the hypothesis of the current study. Measures of RI and build-up and release from PI were administered to 31 abstinent male chronic alcoholics and 24 healthy male nonalcoholic control subjects. Alcoholics demonstrated more sensitivity to RI than controls. Additionally, alcoholics displayed a more rapid build-up of PI, although they showed normal release. An increased interference effect was found to be a component of chronic alcoholics' verbal memory impairment and may differentiate chronic alcoholism from other disorders affecting verbal learning and memory.

Visual hierarchical analysis of Block Design configural errors.

Patients have been frequently observed to violate the overall configuration on the WAIS-R Block Design subtest. The significance of these configural errors was investigated with hierarchical patterns consisting of large "global" shapes made from smaller "local" shapes. Subjects were administered two similarity judgment tasks in which they were asked to decide which of two hierarchically structured comparison figures most resembled a standard figure. Results indicated that subjects who made configural errors on Block Design were less likely than a matched sample who did not make configural errors to select the comparison figure that resembled the standard figure at the global level. Furthermore, the present findings were obtained from subjects without known right-hemisphere lesions, suggesting that the correlation between Block Design errors and global/local performance is applicable to a broad range of patient and non-patient populations. The data are consistent with the view that errors on Block Design may reflect differences in the perceptual encoding of global/local features.

Effects of chronic alcoholism on perception of hierarchical visual stimuli.

Visuospatial processing in chronic alcoholism was investigated by asking subjects to make similarity judgements of hierarchically constructed visual stimuli. Comparison figures were similar to a standard figure at the global or local level. Alcoholics were less influenced by the global patterns in their similarity judgements than were controls. On the WAIS-R Block Design subtest, alcoholics were also more likely than controls to distort the outer configuration of the design. Results indicate that alcoholism affects global processing on both experimental visuoperception tasks and on clinical measures of visuospatial ability. Implications for models of alcoholic dysfunction are discussed.

The premature aging hypothesis: old before its time?

This study tested the hypothesis that alcoholism results in premature aging of memory functioning. It was proposed that support for the premature aging hypothesis must come from qualitative as well as quantitative similarities between younger alcoholics and older controls. The California Verbal Learning Test (CVLT) was administered to young and old alcoholics and to young and old controls. The CVLT provides measures of recall, recognition, learning strategies, and error types. Alcoholism and aging produced similar levels of immediate and delayed free recall. However, poor recognition memory and more frequent intrusion and false positive errors were associated with alcoholism but not with aging. Qualitative differences in error types between alcoholism and aging were also found. Results indicated that alcoholism and aging produce independent verbal learning decrements.

Neuropsychological correlates of chronic alcoholism and aging.

Independent investigations of alcoholism and aging have demonstrated significant parallels between the two phenomena suggesting the possibility of "premature aging" as a result of alcoholism. To test this hypothesis a cross-sectional design was utilized with three groups of 20 male subjects: young normal (mean age 31 years), young alcoholics (mean age 33 years), and elderly normal (mean age 71 years). Eleven objective measures, selected from a battery of sensory and perceptual motor tests routinely used to evaluate cerebral dysfunction in hospitalized patients, were compared for the three groups. The results indicated a definite general decline in neuropsychological functioning with aging and suggested a similar trend with alcoholism. The tendency seen with alcoholism was least apparent with regard to fundamental sensory-motor functions and the perceptual functions of vision and audition and most apparent with regard to short term memory and abstract reasoning, i.e., higher mental processes. The results provided support for the hypothesis that chronic alcoholism causes premature aging of neuropsychological functions and possibly the brain.

WAIS performance in young normal, young alcoholic, and elderly normal groups: an evaluation of organicity and mental aging indices.

Investigated the effects of alcoholism and advanced age on Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS) performance and tested the validity of indices of "organicity" and "mental aging" derived from WAIS scores. The WAIS was administered to three groups of 20 males each: young normal (mean age 31 years), young alcoholic (mean age 33 years), and elderly normal (mean age 71 years. In terms of scaled scores, the young normal group was generally superior to the other groups on Verbal and Performance subtests, and the alcoholic and elderly groups resembled each other more on the Verbal than the Performance subtests. In view of an almost 40-year difference in age between the young alcoholic and the elderly normal Ss, similarities in pattern of performance provided some evidence for the hypothesis of "premature aging" in alcholics.