Abstract

The purpose of the present study was to examine the cognitive deficit and experience-dependent recovery in alcoholics. Two experiments were conducted to examine this problem. Experiment 1 was to examine the difference of performance on Stark Task between alcoholic and normal subjects. Experiment 2 was to examine the recovery pattern and the possibility of transfer on Stark Task in alcoholics. The research hypothesis of interest in this study was : (1) There will be no significant differences in error score on Stark Verbal Task between alcoholic and normal group. (2) There will be significant differences in error scores on Stark Visuo-Spatial Task between alcoholic and normal group. (3) There will be improved performance, if the alcoholics were repeatedly exposed to the original Stark Task. (4) The improved performance on Stark Task will be transfered to a new similar task. Alcoholic patient group and a matched normal control group were selected. The primary diagnosis of each patient was Alcohol Dependency. 2(alcoholic/control group)×2(young/old group)×2(verbal/visuo-spatial task) was employed as a research design in this study. The dependent variable was error scores on Stark Task. The major findings of this study were as follows : (1) There was a large difference between the alcoholic subjects' and control subjects' visuo-spatial error score. (2) There were no difference between the alcoholic subjects' and control subjects' verbal error score. (3) Alcoholic group was improved on the training task with repeated practice. (4) Enhanced performance improvement was transfered to a form of the Visuo-Spatial task with which alcoholic subjects were not yet familiar, the transfer version of the Stark Visuo-Spatial Task.