Alcohol dependence damages both episodic memory and awareness of memory

September, 2010

Adding to the evidence that chronic alcohol abuse produces various cognitive deficits, a new study reveals that it’s also linked to poor metamemory.

Metamemory (understanding your own memory capabilities) is important for learning. Now a study involving 28 alcoholics has found that, compared to controls, they not only performed more poorly on a test of episodic memory, but they were less accurate in their assessments of how good their memory was. The episodic memory task involved learning 20 pairs of items, followed by a recall and a recognition test 20 minutes later. Before the recognition test, participants rated their ability to recognize each nonrecalled word among 4 items. The alcoholics were relatively unaware of their memory deficits and believed that their memory was much better than it was. On a questionnaire of their general memory capacities, they also tended to report themselves as much more capable than they were. Their over-estimation was related to their low performance on tests of executive function.

The finding has implications for any recovery program, since alcoholics will tend to believe that they have mastered any learning long before they have.

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