Abstract
Objectives/Design: There is clear evidence that
MDMA (Ecstasy) users score lower on measures
of working memory and central executive
functioning. In turn aspects of working memory
functioning have been implicated in syllogistic
reasoning performance. For example, concurrent
random generation impairs syllogistic reasoning
performance. Furthermore, MDMA users have
been found to be impaired in measures of
random letter generation. The purpose of the
present paper is to establish whether MDMA
users are impaired in syllogistic reasoning. 20
users and 26 non-users were tested on syllogistic
reasoning problems varying in terms of their level
of difficulty (i.e. the number of mental models
needed to solve the problem). User group (user
versus non-user) was between participants and
level of difficulty (one, two, and three model
problems) within participants.
Methods: Participants were presented with
syllogistic reasoning problems in abstract form,
e.g. Some A are B, All B are C, from which it
follows that Some A are C; and asked to
generate valid conclusions. Four problems were
presented at each level of difficulty.
Results: Users generated fewer valid
conclusions at all levels of difficulty but neither
the main effect of group nor the group by difficulty
interaction were statistically significantly.
Conclusions: The results suggest that higher
level cognitive functions may be less susceptible
to the effects of MDMA although the fact that the
MDMA group did consistently less well overall
indicates that these tentative findings should be
treated with a degree of caution.
Original language | English |
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Publication status | Published - 2003 |
Event | British Psychological Society (BPS) Annual Conference - Bournemouth, United Kingdom Duration: 13 Mar 2003 → 15 Mar 2003 |
Conference
Conference | British Psychological Society (BPS) Annual Conference |
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Country/Territory | United Kingdom |
City | Bournemouth |
Period | 13/03/03 → 15/03/03 |