Effects of Alcohol on Subjective Ratings of Prospective and Everyday Memory Deficits

Abstract

Background:Research has shown that heavy alcohol use has a detrimental effect on retrospective memory. Less is known about the effect of alcohol on everyday memory.Methods: This study examined self-ratings of two aspects of memory performance: prospective memory (for example, forgetting to pass on a message) and everyday memory (measured by cognitive failures, such as telling someone a joke that you have told them before). To ensure anonymity and expand on the numbers of participants used in previous studies, data were collected by using the Internet. Data from 763 participants remained after data screening.Results: After controlling for other drug and strategy use, there was clear evidence that differential use of alcohol was associated with impairments in the long-term aspect of prospective memory and with an increased number of cognitive failures.Conclusions: These results support and extend the findings of previous research: our findings are consistent with the idea that heavy use of alcohol does have a significant and negative effect on everyday cognitive performance. Possible causes of these impairments are discussed.

Prospective memory and future event simulation in individuals with alcohol dependence

“…Alcohol. Six of seven studies comparing higher dose alcohol users to lower dose controls identified some association between alcohol usage and impairments in one or more aspect of self-reported PM ( Heffernan, Moss, & Ling, 2002;Ling et al, 2003;Heffernan, Ling, & Bartholomew, 2004;Heffernan & Bartholomew, 2006;Heffernan et al, 2006;Ling, Luczakiewicz, Heffernan & Stephens, 2010). All of these studies used the PMQ to assess PM.…”

“…All studies found impairments in long term PM, five in short term PM and four in internally cued PM. Importantly, however, Ling et al (2003) were only able to analyse the long term PM scale in their study, for reasons that will be expanded upon later. No significant differences were reported in the 'strategies to remember' subscale in any of the six studies, although in three cases (Heffernan et al, 2006;Ling et al, 2003; this was entered into the analysis as a covariate.…”

Problematic Alcohol Use Among Individuals with HIV: Relations with Everyday Memory Functioning and HIV Symptom Severity

“…Nevertheless, future studies should employ a multimodal assessment of cognitive functioning that includes both self-report and neuropsychological assessment tools. In addition, although the EMQ has been used with cognitively compromised clinical samples [61][62][63] and is sensitive to differential use of alcohol [66], it has not been employed in previous studies with HIV-infected samples. Of note though, other studies have included similar measures of meta-memory (e.g., Prospective and Retrospective Memory Questionnaire) to assess perceived memory difficulties in HIV-infected samples [98].…”

“…The psychometric properties and construct validity of the EMQ have been extensively studied in healthy [59] and clinical populations [61][62][63]. Additionally the EMQ has been employed in studies with cannabis users [64], ecstasy and poly-drug/alcohol users [65] and the measure has demonstrated sensitivity to differential use of alcohol [66].…”

Association of coronary risk factors and behaviours in old age

“…A recent meta-analysis of 143 papers describing the relative drinking of alcohol and cognition found that moderate drinking seems to reduce the risk of dementia and cognitive decline in older subjects [39]. Heavy alcohol use has a significant and negative effect on everyday cognitive performance, and the presence of cognitive and neuropsychological deficits have been observed in heavy drinkers [40].…”