Problematic alcohol use and mild intellectual disability: Standardization of pictorial stimuli for an alcohol cue reactivity task

The present study focused on the first step in developing a cue reactivity task for studying cognitive biases in individuals with mild to borderline intellectual disability (ID) and alcohol use-related problems: the standardization of pictorial stimuli. Participants (N = 40), both with and without a history of alcohol use-related problems and varying in IQ, were admitted to a forensic setting and were all abstinent. They were asked to rate familiarity, complexity, valence and attractiveness of pictures portraying both alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages. There was a tendency to rate non-alcoholic beverages as more pleasant and attractive than alcoholic beverages. In participants with mild to borderline ID, this difference reached statistical significance, even when controlling for alcohol use-related problems in the past. The overall result of the study is a large database of 255 pictures portraying both alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages that will be used to validate an implicit measure of cognitive biases for alcohol in individuals with mild to borderline ID.

► The study focused on standardizing pictorial stimuli for alcohol cue reactivity tasks. ► The result is a database of 255 pictures of alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages. ► Non-alcoholic beverages were rated as more pleasant and more attractive. ► There are differences between individuals with and without ID on attractiveness. ► Pictures will be used in studies on cognitive biases in alcohol use.