Implicit Cognition and Addiction
QUESTION
Read the article, Implicit Cognition and Addiction: A Tool for Explaining Paradoxical Behavior, at http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3423976/. What is the implication of the information presented in this article? How does this information influence our understanding of addictions?
Implicit Cognition and Addiction
ANSWER
The conclusion drawn from the details presented in this article is that there is a great connection/relationship between addiction and cognitive processes. Research proves that addiction is not a person’s choice by rationalizing the impacts of their actions; instead, the outcome of ‘association in memory.’ In this case, when individuals expect the pros and cons of addictive behavior to outweigh the merits and demerits of healthy traits, they tend to choose addiction. The information in the article influences our comprehension of addictions as the article illustrates that persons who suffer from addiction portray a stringer attentional prejudice-focus greater of their attentional in relation to abuse that causes poorer decisions and choices (Stacy & Wiers, 2010). Additional research illustrates that the use of substances could be motivational. This means an acquired trait acquired after engaging in complex behaviors of seeking/engaging in drug abuse.
Various research strategies have generated the same results, hence proving that there is an excellent correlation between addictive traits and cognitive processes. These strategies and methods applied to addiction include illusory memory, extalist cued-recall paradigms, and process dissociation. Although memory is assessed with explicit instructions, strategic manipulations of word list structure, recall cues, instructions, delay intervals, and other procedure aspects often allow inferences about implicit processes to be made. This is an intriguing feature. The correlations with addiction are evident across prospective, experimental, and cross-sectional designs in populations like older kids, young adolescents, and adults and among people undergoing treatment and non-treatment settings. Memory connections, attentional biases, and attitude action inclinations are examples of practical approaches to define and measure implicit processes (Brand & Gutmann, 2020). Understanding the non-reflective side of intervention effects can be improved by measuring these dynamics in interventions.