When Alcohol Adverts Catch the Eye: A Psychometrically Reliable Dual-Probe Measure of Attentional Bias

Sera Wiechert, Ben Grafton, Colin MacLeod and Reinout W. Wiers
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Sera Wiechert: Department of Clinical Psychology, University of Amsterdam, 1018 WT Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Ben Grafton: Centre for the Advancement of Research on Emotion, School of Psychological Science, University of Western Australia, Perth 6009, Australia
Colin MacLeod: Centre for the Advancement of Research on Emotion, School of Psychological Science, University of Western Australia, Perth 6009, Australia
Reinout W. Wiers: Addiction Development and Psychopathology (ADAPT)-Lab, Department of Psychology, Center for Urban Mental Health, University of Amsterdam, 1018 WT Amsterdam, The Netherlands

IJERPH, 2021, vol. 18, issue 24, 1-12

Abstract: Existing tasks assessing substance-related attentional biases are characterized by low internal consistency and test–retest reliability. This study aimed to assess the psychometric properties of a novel dual-probe task to measure alcohol-related attentional bias. Undergraduate students were recruited in June 2019 (N = 63; final N = 57; mean age = 20.88, SD = 2.63, 67% females). In the dual-probe task, participants were presented with simultaneous visual streams of adverts promoting either alcoholic or non-alcoholic drinks, and probes were presented in both streams. The dual-probe task measured the percentage of accurately identified probes that appeared on alcohol adverts in relation to total accuracy. The dual-probe task displayed excellent split-half reliability ( M = 0.90, SD = 0.11; α = 0.90; 95% CI [0.84, 0.93]), and the derived attentional bias measure was significantly positively associated with beer drinking in a taste-test ( r (57) = 0.33, p = 0.013; 95% CI [0.07, 0.54]), with habitual drinking ( r (57) = 0.27, p = 0.045; 95% CI [0.01, 0.49]), and with increased craving ( r (57) = 0.29, p = 0.031; 95% CI [0.03, 0.51]). Thus, the dual-probe task assessed attentional bias with excellent internal consistency and was associated with laboratory and habitual drinking measures, demonstrating initial support for the task’s utility in addiction research.

Keywords: attentional bias; alcohol; reliability; alcohol advertisement; dual-probe task; attentional bias modification (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
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