Impulsivity, self-regulation, and response withholding in university-student drinkers

Abstract

This study was designed to determine how impulsivity, self-regulation, and response withholding are related to one another and to university students’ drinking behavior. Participants (N = 108) completed measures of impulsivity, self-regulation, and alcohol consumption. In addition, a computerized Go/No Go task and a backward memory task were used to measure participants’ behavioral impulsivity and their memory capacity. The aim was to determine whether (a) light/moderate and heavy drinkers would respond differently when the task stimuli were alcohol-related compared to when they were alcohol-unrelated and (b) whether the accuracy of participants’ responses was related to their cognitive ability. Compared to light/moderate drinkers, heavy drinkers were low in self-regulation and high in impulsivity. Heavy drinkers and those with lower memory capacity were also poorer at withholding responses on No Go trials. These findings point to personality/cognitive characteristics that influence university students’ alcohol consumption.

Keywords:

• Alcohol consumption
• impulsivity
• self-regulation
• response withholding
• university students
• Go/No Go task

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

The author(s) reported there is no funding associated with the work featured in this article.