State-dependent memory under alcohol

How can psychology of memory explain this

phenomenon?

The study of Goodwin et al. (1969):

It is well-known that alcoholics hide money or

alcohol when drunk. When they are sober again,

they have no clue where their money or their

booze is. If they are drunken again, they find the

hidden objects again.

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In Goodwin et al‘s experiment, participants had to learn words

and later to retrieve them.

There were four groups:

Learn Retr. Learn Retr. Learn Retr. Learn Retr.

Sober

Alcohol

State-dependent memory under alcohol

Retr. = Retrieval

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-1 0 1 2 3 4 5

RetrievalSober

RetrievalAlcohol

Learning Alcohol

Learning Sober

Number of errors (Difference to baseline)

State-dependent memory under alcohol

Not surprisingly, sober participants who were sober during learning

made less errors at retrieval than participants who were drunk during

learning.

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-1 0 1 2 3 4 5

RetrievalSober

RetrievalAlcohol

Learning Alcohol

Learning Sober

Number of errors (Difference to baseline)

State-dependent memory under alcohol

More surprisingly, drunk participants who were sober during learning

made more errors at retrieval than participants who were drunk during

learning.

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This is a typical case of state-dependent memory: Retention is best

when the physiological state is the same during learning and

retrieval.

Therefore, retention is better if people are either sober or drunk at

both times than when they are sober at one time and sober at the

other.

State-dependent memory can be observed with many drugs.

A related phenomenon is context-dependent memory (e.g.,

Godden & Baddeley, 1975; Smith et al., 1978).

State-dependent memory under alcohol

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