1. © POSbase 2005 Artificial Grammar Learning in Alcohol Abuse Pothos & Cox (2002) Pothos & Cox (2002) were interested in whether alcohol abuse changes cognitive processing of alcohol-related stimuli. Contributor They modified an artificial grammar learning task, using a finite state grammar. Instead of letters, they used either neutral words (e.g., Athens – Paris – Rome ) or sequences of drinks (Gin – Wine – Whiskey).

2. © POSbase 2005 Artificial Grammar Learning in Alcohol Abuse The question is whether heavy alcohol abuse results in impaired learning of the sequences in the grammar because focus on the meaning of alcohol-related stimuli may interfere with grammar learning. Pothos & Chater (1998) showed that AGL performance unaffected by such changes in stimulus format.

3. © POSbase 2005 Artificial Grammar Learning in Alcohol Abuse Participants had first to watch grammatical sequences, either routes or drinks. Then they got grammatical and ungrammatical sequences and had to indicate whether the sequence is regular or not. Two groups of participants: Light drinkers (around five units per week), Heavy drinkers (around 23 units per week).

4. © POSbase 2005 Artificial Grammar Learning in Alcohol Abuse Looking at grammatical items only, the hypothesis was supported: Heavy drinkers showed a selective impairment on alcohol-related stimuli. However, the interaction disappeared for overall performance. This pattern is not easy to explain.

5. © POSbase 2005 Artificial Grammar Learning in Alcohol Abuse In conclusion, participants with a problem of alcohol abuse showed an impairment in artificial grammar learning for grammatical items. This finding is in line with demonstrations of interference of alcohol-related stimuli in the Alcohol Stroop Task (Johnsen et al., 1994; Sharma et al., 2001). Sharma et al., 2001