COGNITIVE MODELING ANALYSIS OF PERFORMANCE ON THE IOWA GAMBLING TASK IN UNDERGRADUATES REPORTING SUBSTANCE USE A thesis presented to the faculty of the College of Arts and Sciences of Ohio University In partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree Master of Science Dustin B. Hammers March 2005 This thesis entitled COGNITIVE MODELING ANALYSIS OF PERFORMANCE ON THE IOWA GAMBLING TASK IN UNDERGRADUATES REPORTING SUBSTANCE USE by DUSTIN B. HAMMERS has been approved for the Department of Psychology and the College of Arts and Sciences by Julie Suhr Associate Professor of Psychology Benjamin M. Ogles Interim Dean, College of Arts and Sciences HAMMERS, DUSTIN B. M.S. March 2005. Clinical Psychology Cognitive Modeling Analysis of Performance on the Iowa Gambling Task in Undergraduates Reporting Substance Use (107 pp.) Director of Thesis: Julie Suhr Substance abusers display decision-making and executive functioning impairments, as measured by the Iowa Gambling Task (IGT) and Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (WCST), respectively. Reward-driven personality appears to be related to these constructs, and has also been shown to be higher in substance abusers. The current study examines decision making, executive functioning, and reward-driven personality characteristics of undergraduate substance users and controls. Decision-making performance (IGT) is separated into cognitive, motivational, and consistency processes. The present study finds that substance users perform significantly worse on IGT relative to controls, although no differences in the underlying cognitive or motivation processes exist. Substance users also perform significantly worse on WCST and display a more reward-driven personality. Thus, impaired decision-making and executive functioning and reward-driven personality are evident even in non-clinical substance users, suggesting these findings might be premorbid characteristics of substance users, not reflective of brain damage consequent to years of substance abuse. Approved: Julie Suhr Associate Professor of Psychology 4 Table of Contents Page Abstract........………………………………………………………………………………3 List of Figures......................................................................................................................7 List of Tables .......................................................................................................................8 Introduction..........................................................................................................................9 The Frontal Lobes and the Iowa Gambling Task.........................................................10 Evidence of Impaired Decision Making in Substance Abuse......................................18 Other Neuropsychological Deficits in Substance Abuse.............................................23 Personality Characteristics Associated with Substance Abuse....................................28 Limitations to Existing Decision-Making/Substance Abuse Literature ......................30 Decomposing the IGT............................................................................................31 Sample Limitations ................................................................................................34 Control for Affect ..................................................................................................39 Present Study...............................................................................................................40 Methods..............................................................................................................................41 Observations ................................................................................................................41 Measures of Interest to the Proposed Study.................................................................42 Cognitive Appraisals of Risky Events- Expected Involvement (CARE-EI) .........42 Iowa Gambling Task..............................................................................................45 Cognitive Modeling Analysis ................................................................................47 Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (WCST-64) .............................................................48 5 Go/No Go Task......................................................................................................50 Behavioral Inhibition/Behavioral Activation Scale (BIS/BAS) ............................51 Positive and Negative Affect Schedule (PANAS).................................................53 Experimental Procedure...............................................................................................54 Statistical Analyses ......................................................................................................54 Results................................................................................................................................56 Iowa Gambling Task....................................................................................................59 Cognitive Modeling Analysis ......................................................................................59 Wisconsin Card Sorting Test .......................................................................................61 Behavioral Inhibition/Behavioral Activation Scale.....................................................62 Supplementary Analyses..............................................................................................63 Discussion..........................................................................................................................65 Iowa Gambling Task....................................................................................................66 Cognitive Modeling Analysis ......................................................................................69 Wisconsin Card Sorting Test .......................................................................................71 Behavioral Inhibition/Behavioral Activation Scale.....................................................74 Limitations ...................................................................................................................76 Implications of the Findings and Future Directions ....................................................78 References..........................................................................................................................86 Appendix A: Demographic Questionnaire.........................................................................98 Appendix B: CARE ...........................................................................................................99 Appendix C: BIS/BAS.....................................................................................................103 6 Appendix D: PANAS.......................................................................................................105 Appendix E: WCST-64 Scoring Form.............................................................................106 Appendix F: Go/ No Go...................................................................................................107 7 List of Figures Figure Page 1. Lateral (A) and medial (B) hemispheric views of the human brain, identifying the dorsolateral, medial frontal, and orbitofrontal prefrontal cortices...............................11 2. A schematic diagram of the Iowa Gambling Task........................................................14 3. Iowa Gambling Task performance separated across quintiles between substance using and control groups..............................................................................................61 8 List of Tables Table Page 1. Substance Abuse and Iowa Gambling Task Performance: A Review of Studies.........19 2. Substance Abuse and Wisconsin Card Sorting Test Performance: A Review of Studies..........................................................................................................................26 3. Demographics of the Control and Substance Using Groups ........................................58 4. Performance on the Iowa Gambling Task of the Control and Substance Use Groups as Separated into Quintiles...........................................................................................60 5. Results of the Cognitive Modeling Analysis of the Performance on the Iowa Gambling Task between Controls and Substance Using Groups ................................62 6. Performance of Controls and Substance Using Groups on the WCST and the BIS/BAS Questionnaire...............................................................................................63 7. ANCOVA Analyses with Substance Use as Fixed Variable and the Covariate of General Riskiness for the Dependent Variables of Interest.........................................64 9 Introduction Substance abuse disorders are the leading cause of medical mortality, morbidity, and health expenditures in the United States (NCADD, 2002). A key component of substance abuse is the persistence of use for benefit of an immediate reward regardless of evidence that such action may have negative future consequences on family, career, and health (Bechara, 2003). This behavior is evident early in life, for over 40% of adult alcoholics experience some form of alcoholic symptomatology between the ages of 15 to 19 and at least 50% of individuals with substance disorders initiate drug consumption between the ages of 15 and 18 (Chambers,