The separate and combined effects of drinking and smoking upon everyday prospective memory

Abstract

Introduction Prospective memory (PM) refers to memory for future plans/actions; such as remembering to meet with friends or to perform a task at a specific time. Independent research has demonstrated that smoking and excessive alcohol consumption produce PM deficits on both self-reported and objective measures of PM. Objectives No research to date has looked at the combined use of excessive alcohol and tobacco smoking upon PM, which is the focus of this study. Aims The present study aimed to provide compare a group of excessive drinkers, a group of smokers (not excessively drinking) and a poly-drug excessive drinking and smoking group, on an objective measure of PM. Methods A between-subjects design will be used to compare three groups: (1) a group of excessive drinkers who do not smoke; (2) a group of smokers who do not drink excessively and (3) a group of excessive drinkers who also smoke. The Cambridge Prospective Memory Task will measure both time and event based PM; and two self-reports will measure covariates of substance use and everyday mood (since these can impact upon PM independent of smoking/drinking status). Results Descriptive statistics will be applied to observe the trends across all three groups with regards the covariates and main dependent measures of time and event based PM. A series of ANOVAs will be applied to determine significance across the groups on the covariates and on the main dependent measures. Conclusions The conclusions and implications will be presented at the conference, along with suggestions for future research.