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. 1998 Oct;93(10):1539-42.
doi: 10.1046/j.1360-0443.1998.9310153910.x.

Alcohol-related words are distracting to both alcohol abusers and non-abusers in the Stroop colour-naming task

D Bauer  1 , W M Cox
Affiliations

Alcohol-related words are distracting to both alcohol abusers and non-abusers in the Stroop colour-naming task

D Bauer et al. Addiction. 1998 Oct.

Abstract

Aim: To compare alcohol abusers' and non-abusers' distraction for alcohol-related and emotional words, controlling for emotional valence of those words.

Design and method: The experiment compared 20 alcohol abusers and 20 non-abusers in terms of performance on a computerized Stroop colour-naming test using alcohol-related and non-alcohol-related words.

Findings: Abusers rated the alcohol stimuli greater in emotional valence than the emotional stimuli. Therefore, differences in emotional-valence ratings between the two groups were statistically controlled. Against expectation, both alcohol abusers and non-abusers were more distracted by alcohol stimuli than by positive or negative emotional stimuli.

Conclusions: The results indicate that alcohol words are distracting for drinkers in general, and this may indicate a high level of salience for these kinds of stimuli.

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