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COGNITIVE PSYCHOLOGY
WHAT EFFECTS DOES ACOHOL BINGE DRINKING HAVE ON PROSPECTIVE MEMORY?
SARAH HILL
P4042678
Dr Janice Bartholomew

Abstract

This study aims to examine and investigate what effects alcohol binge drinking and non-binge drinking has on prospective memory.

Introduction

One of the most widely used drugs in the world is the alcohol. It has been shown to play a detrimental role within society and on an individuals health. According to the NHS, excessive alcohol use can increase the risk of having a heart attack and also cause health problems related to the liver, fertility and high blood pressure (NHS, 2014). Excessive alcohol use can also have an impact on mental health and abusing alcohol can cause psychological traits such as impulsiveness and low self-esteem (‘Understanding alcohol use disorders and their treatment’, n.d.). In 2002 as study was conducted to measure memory deficits of chronic alcohol use and the results make clear that chronic heavy alcohol users outline more impairments within prospective memory (Heffernan, 2002). Prospective memory (PM) is “the cognitive function we use for formulating plans and promises, for retaining them, and for re-collecting them subsequently either at the right time or on the occurrence of appropriate cues” (Graf, 2012, pp. 7-8). Memories such as realising that you need to take medicine before bedtime or remembering to pick up a birthday present for a loved one. It's important to fundamentally understand the context of what prospective memory is and its ubiquity demands, because it's failures can have devastating effects. Human error can cause many catastrophic work accidents and “failures of prospective memory are among the most common form of human fallibility” (Reason, 1990, pp. 107). Another study conducted to support and extend the findings of the previous research conducted on retrospective memory, showed that heavy alcohol use impacted cognitive performance significantly (Ling et al ., 2003). A study in 2006 showed that excessive alcohol use in teenagers showed significantly more errors in their long term, short term, and internally cued perspective memory, compared to that of participants who had low-dose/no alcohol controls (Heffernan & Bartholomew, 2006). An almost identical study conducted using the same measures reported that teenagers using excessive alcohol report more errors with deficits that impact their everyday partake in customary short-term and long-term prospective memory functioning (Heffernan et al., 2006). Limitations within these studies point directly to the self-report methodologies. This is because majority of assessment and evaluation of alcohol studies involve measures of self-reporting, so validity and reliability are key aspects when conducting analysis in this specific area. In the excessive studies, alcohol abusers self-reports tends to underestimate their alcohol consumption whilst being interviewed with any alcohol in their system (L.C. Sobell and Sobell 1990; L.C. Sobell et al., 1994). Alcohol abusers also state that their results are likely to be inaccurate because of the consumption of alcohol in their system, so having no alcohol within their system during procedures would only enhance the validity of results (L.C. Sobell et al., 1992). A strength of self-report is that it's a very effective strategy in terms of the time and cost for the researchers in obtaining their data. Prospective Memory Questionnaires (PMQ) were used within the studies, and this tool has demonstrated to be a productive implement in the use of prospective memory settings. In 1995 it was used in the study of brain damaged patients and proved to be a useful neuropsychological instrument within this study (Hannon, Adams, Harrington, Fries-Dias, & Gipson, 1995, pp. 289-297). The PMQ is designed to aid participants to be able to record data on the number of times that their PM has deminished in frameworks consisting of immediate, long-term and short-term PM. The samples used within the previous studies could have been more closely considered, in terms of gender. Females metabolise alcohol completely different to males. According to the literature women have been found to carry less water within the body compared to males of the same weight. Thus leading alcohol to be more absorbed into the bloodstream of women (Frezza at al.,1990). The NHS recommends that men should not regularly drink more than 3-4 units of alcohol a day and that women should not drink more than 2-3 units daily (Choices, 2015). The aim of this study is to examine the effects of binge drinking on everyday PM. The term ‘binge drinking’ has been a title hard to define over many years and still is subject to debate in the current climate. According to the World Health Organisation, binge drinking refers to a person consuming 6 units of alcohol (Peacock, 2014). This aim of this study is to observe binge drinking and its effects on prospective memory through self-reported assessment. The most recent and up to date questionnaire that this study will be using to measure the self-reported PM is the Prospective and Retrospective Memory Questionnaire (PRMQ). This study will be using the definition from the NHS binge drinking website to build statistics to support this study. The NHS states that a men who consumes eight units and a women who consumes six units within a single drinking session would be defined as binge drinking (Choices, 2015). Using the NHS definition felt more appropriate as it leads the National Health Service in the aim of encouraging and prioritising debates to improve health and care, so that individuals can take more control over their health and wellbeing. Other drugs will be controlled using the Recreational Drug Use Questionnaire (RDUQ). Two groups will be used within this study as this research is largely based around their consumption of alcohol in units and sessions, the groups will be ‘binge drinkers’ and ‘non-binge drinkers’. More in depth information on the two groups used will be elaborated in more detail within the method report section.
Method
Design
The design of this research experiment will use a between subjects group design, using the two alcohol groups: ‘binge drinkers versus ‘non-binge drinkers’. These two groups will be used as the independent factors within this study. The term ‘binge drinking’ is operationally defined as men who consume eight units and women who consume six units within one drinking session over a week. PRMQ (see appendix 1) was used as the dependent factors in the assessment of PM. Covariates used in this study were, age of participant, recreational drug use using the RDUQ (see appendix 2), last use of alcohol and anxiety and depression: these were analysed and measured.
Participants
The participants used were all students from Teesside University studying cognitive psychology. In total their were eight six participants who agreed to volunteer in this research study.

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