Automatic Cognitive Processes and Youth Substance Use: Risks and Prevention

Abstract

This review will explore the accumulating evidence that social learning and substance use lead to automatic cognitive biases associated with increased risk of future substance use. Spontaneous cognitive and behavioral responses to substance use cues index these biases. Recent findings highlight new measures of cognitive biases, technological advances in the measurement of automatic responses, and the development of effective intervention procedures that target changing automatic responses. In the youth, changes in the associative network based on social learning are important in the early stages of substance use, initiation, and escalation of use. Social learning changes precede early substance use decisions and are indexed by spontaneous cognitions. In addition, there is increasing evidence that selective prevention targeting at-risk individuals is effective with efficient delivery in school-based settings. Applied to early prevention, these observations support an approach that (1) screens for spontaneous cognitive indices of risk, (2) targets education and training to change automatic cognitions, and (3) monitors the effects of prevention education on automatic cognitions.