Error Processing in Hazardous Alcohol Use: Links to Insight
Year: 2026
Type: preprint
Abstract: This project investigates the neural and behavioral markers of error awareness in hazardous alcohol use, and how these processes relate to insight. The project consists of two studies. Study 1 will examine behavioral measures of error awareness and insight in hazardous and non-hazardous drinkers. Participants will complete two tasks; a probabilistic choice task adapted to include alcohol-related images (Moeller et al., 2009) and an error awareness task based on a modified Go/No-Go paradigm (Hester et al., 2005). Participants will also complete a series of questionnaires assessing drug and alcohol use, and motivation to change hazardous drinking behaviour. This study will assess whether hazardous drinkers (defined by AUDIT scores) display reduced error awareness and diminished behavioural insight. Additionally, this study will examine whether error awareness and insight are related to recognition of alcohol-related problems and motivation to change drinking behavior. This study will be conducted entirely online. Study 2 is a lab-based partial replication of study 1 which seeks to build on findings obtained in study 1 by introducing an electroencephalography (EEG) component. During the error awareness task, EEG recordings will be collected to assess neural indices of error processing. Specifically, the study will examine whether hazardous and non-hazardous drinkers differ on key error processing event-related potentials: the error-related negativity (ERN) and the error positivity (Pe).
Language: English
Subfield: Epidemiology
Field: Medicine
Domain: Health Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W7155368057