Copeland, A. orcid.org/0000-0003-4634-3343, Stafford, T. orcid.org/0000-0002-8089-9479, Acuff, S.F. et al. (2 more authors) (2023) Behavioral economic and value-based decision-making constructs that discriminate current heavy drinkers versus people who reduced their drinking without treatment. Psychology of Addictive Behaviors, 37 (1). pp. 132-143. ISSN 0893-164X
Abstract
Objective: A substantial number of people reduce their consumption of alcohol in the absence of formal treatment; however, less is known about the mechanisms of change. The aim of this study is to explore whether constructs derived from behavioral economics and computational decision-modeling characterize the moderation of alcohol consumption that many heavy drinkers experience without treatment. Method: Between-subject, preregistered design. People who reside in the United Kingdom and who drink heavily (n = 60) or used to drink heavily but now consume alcohol in moderation (n = 60) were recruited. Participants completed self-report behavioral economic measures (alcohol demand and alcohol-related and alcohol-free reinforcement) and a two-alternative forced choice task in which they chose between two alcoholic (in one block) or two soft drink images (in a different block). A drift-diffusion model was fitted to responses from this task to yield the underlying parameters of value-based choice. Results: Compared to heavy drinkers, moderated drinkers had significantly lower alcohol demand, Omax, p = .03, Cohen’s d = .36; elasticity, p = .03, rank-biserial correlation (rrb) = .21, and higher proportionate alcohol-free reinforcement (p < .001, Cohen’s d = .75). However, contrary to hypotheses, there were no robust between-group differences in value-based decision-making (VBDM) parameters. Conclusions: Self-report behavioral economic measures demonstrate that alcohol moderation without treatment is characterized by lowered alcohol demand and greater behavioral allocation to alcohol-free reinforcement, in line with behavioral economic theory. However, a computerized VBDM measure yielded inconclusive findings.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © 2022 American Psychological Association. This is an author-produced version of a paper subsequently published in Psychology of Addictive Behaviors. Available under the CC-By Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0). |
Keywords: | alcohol; behavioral economics; computational; decision-making; moderation |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Sheffield |
Academic Units: | The University of Sheffield > Faculty of Science (Sheffield) > Department of Psychology (Sheffield) |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Sheffield |
Date Deposited: | 05 Aug 2022 07:45 |
Last Modified: | 25 Sep 2024 11:00 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | American Psychological Association (APA) |
Refereed: | Yes |
Identification Number: | 10.1037/adb0000873 |
Related URLs: | |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:189731 |