ASSESSMENT OF THE CONTINUITY HYPOTHESIS IN CHRONIC ALCOHOLICS AND ALCOHOLIC KORSAKOFFS BY MEANS OF VERBAL MEMORY TESTS.
Item
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Title
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ASSESSMENT OF THE CONTINUITY HYPOTHESIS IN CHRONIC ALCOHOLICS AND ALCOHOLIC KORSAKOFFS BY MEANS OF VERBAL MEMORY TESTS.
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Identifier
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AAI8423085
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identifier
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8423085
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Creator
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LUCK, DANA ZARET.
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Contributor
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Steven Mattis
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Date
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1984
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Language
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English
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Publisher
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City University of New York.
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Subject
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Psychology, Experimental
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Abstract
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The continuity hypothesis presumes that there is a behavioral and neuropathological continuum extending from normal functioning to the alcoholic Korsakoff syndrome. The validity of the continuity hypothesis was evaluated by administering a battery of verbal memory tests to three groups of subjects: nonalcoholic controls: chronic alcoholics; and alcoholic Korsakoffs. The chronic alcoholics were long-term alcoholics who had been detoxified for a minimum of one month prior to testing. They were "intact" in that they exhibited no signs of cognitive dysfunction either clinically or on a mental status evaluation, and had no history of even mild head trauma. Both recall and recognition functions in short term and long term verbal memory were assessed. Attention was given to the subprocesses that have been implicated as causal deficits in the alcoholic Korsakoff syndrome. Quantitative and qualitative comparisons were made among the three groups.;The chronic alcoholics presented with the following cluster of deficits: impaired recall for both meaningful and novel material in short term verbal memory; impaired recognition for novel material in short term verbal memory; and impaired recall in long term verbal memory. The alcoholic Korsakoffs shared the above deficits and also demonstrated impaired recognition for meaningful material in short term verbal memory, a semantic encoding deficit that was susceptible to the effects of proactive interference, a deficit in semantic information processing, a generalized retrieval deficit, and impaired recognition in long term verbal memory.;Little support appeared for the continuity hypothesis. On only one measure (assessing recall in short term verbal memory for meaningful material) did the chronic alcoholics perform at a level that was intermediate between those of the other two groups. Qualitatively, the chronic alcoholics failed to share any distinctive similarities in their pattern of performance with the alcoholic Korsakoff group. Overall, the chronic alcoholics appeared to be functioning like inefficient (or mildly toxic) nonalcoholic controls.;Methodological issues were raised concerning the need to develop standardized criteria for identifying subgroups of alcoholics, and to control for the effects of powerful between-group variables (such as mild head trauma, depression and general intelligence).
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Type
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dissertation
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Source
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PQT Legacy CUNY.xlsx
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degree
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Ph.D.
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Program
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Psychology
