Cognitive bias covaries with alcohol consumption.
Cognitive models of behavior led to the prediction that ambiguous stimuli would be interpreted as alcohol-relevant in heavier drinkers. Women were asked to define words that could be interpreted as alcohol-relevant or not (e.g., shot). Two measures served as indicators of a latent construct of cognitive bias: the number of words construed to be related to alcohol, and the position of the first word in the series that was defined as alcohol-relevant. Average quantity, average frequency, and maximum number of drinks imbibed in a single episode served as indicators of a latent construct of alcohol consumption. These two constructs covaried significantly (.44) in a two-factor latent variable analysis that fit the data better than alternative models. These findings support an alcohol-related interpretive bias and suggest hypotheses concerning the types of interpretive preferences that may contribute to alcohol consumption.