Learning functions in short-term cocaine users

Abstract

Objective: This study examined learning functions in short-term cocaine users and control participants.

Method: Seventeen active cocaine users (reporting 3.5 mean years of cocaine use) and seventeen non-cocaine-using controls (with similar reported levels of alcohol and marijuana use) were compared on tasks measuring different aspects of learning.

Results: The cocaine users performed more poorly on the Weather Prediction and List-Learning tasks, as well as supplementary executive and psychomotor function tasks, than controls.

Conclusions: Individuals with a relatively short duration of cocaine use exhibited moderate weaknesses in probabilistic category learning, verbal learning and psychomotor functions, relative to controls. These weaknesses may underpin difficulty in learning from the probabilistic consequences of behavior and hinder the ability to respond to cognitive-behavioral treatments.

Fig. 1

Percent of optimal responses by blocks of trials in cocaine users and controls on the Weather Prediction Task. Each error bar represents one SEM; ^#indicates an overall within-subject difference from block 1 (p < 0.05); *indicates an overall between-group difference (p < 0.05).