The primary purpose of the present study was to investigate a specific area of
cognitive functioning to determine if any differences exist between adult children of
alcoholics and controls in the processing of emotionally laden word cues. Of secondary
importance was the investigation of group differences in self-esteem, extroversion,
neuroticism, and attentional control.
A modified version of the Stroop Colour Naming Task was used to investigate
selective processing of word cues in a sample of 37 adult children of alcoholics (ACOAs)
and 37 adult children of non alcoholics (non ACOAs). All subjects were university
students who volunteered for the study. The original form of this task required subjects to
name the color of ink in which a word was printed while ignoring word content. Modified
versions of this task substitute target words and control words for the words standardly
used in order to investigate attentional bias for relevant word cues. As predicted, ACOAs
were significantly slower than non ACOAs on this task. There was also a significant group
x word type interaction. Compared to non ACOAs, ACOAs displayed a significant
attentional bias in favor of alcohol and social threat words compared to neutral and positive
words as evidenced by increased response times on the Stroop Task. There was also a
significant main effect for word type with response time slowest for alcohol words and
fastest for positive words. There were no significant group differences in self-esteem,
extroversion, neuroticism, or attentional control.
The results were discussed in terms of a generalized attentional deficit for the overall
slower response time exhibited by the ACOA group. The more specialized Stroop effect of
attentional bias for alcohol and social threat words was discussed in terms of the
development of danger schemata based on previous life experiences perceived to be
threatening. / Graduation date: 1992
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:ORGSU/oai:ir.library.oregonstate.edu:1957/37401 |
| Date | 17 March 1992 |
| Creators | Zimmerman, Anne H. |
| Contributors | Cruse, Donna |
| Source Sets | Oregon State University |
| Language | en_US |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis/Dissertation |
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