| Course | ADC 515 Psychology of Addiction |
|---|---|
| Module | Module 3 |
| Paper type | Measurement appraisal |
| Length | About 1,016 words, 6 pages |
| Format | APA 7 student paper |
| School | Aspen University |
| Program | Psychology and Addiction Studies |
| Updated | October 2026 |
Free sample paper for ADC 515 Module 3
Measuring What Clients Cannot Report: Implicit Cognition Tasks and Their Place in Treatment
Student Name
Psychology and Addiction Studies Program, Aspen University
ADC 515: Psychology of Addiction
Instructor Name
Month Day, Year
Measuring What Clients Cannot Report: Implicit Cognition Tasks and Their Place in Treatment
The clinical director of the residential program near Grand Rapids where Denise is in treatment read about computer tasks that measure implicit cognition and asked Marcus, a graduate intern, whether the program should add them to intake. The director, the intern and their program are all fictional. This paper reviews how such tasks work and what they can tell a program.
Why Implicit Measures Were Developed
Questionnaires ask people to report their attitudes, cravings and intentions. But people may be unable to report processes that operate outside awareness, and they may be unwilling to report some attitudes honestly. Implicit measures were developed to infer mental associations and tendencies indirectly, usually from the speed or accuracy of responses in computer tasks, without asking people to describe them.
The Implicit Association Test
Greenwald et al. (1998) introduced the Implicit Association Test. Participants sort words or images into categories using two response keys. In one block, two concepts share a key, for example alcohol words and positive words; in another, the pairing is reversed, alcohol with negative words. If a person responds faster when alcohol and positive share a key than when alcohol and negative do, this is taken to indicate a stronger association between alcohol and positive evaluation. The authors showed that the test detected associations, such as preferences for flowers over insects, and differences between groups, even where people's stated attitudes did not reveal them.
What Implicit Measures Predict
Wiers and Stacy (2006) reviewed research using implicit measures in addiction, including association tasks such as the Implicit Association Test and word association, attentional tasks that measure how strongly drug cues capture attention and approach-avoidance tasks that measure automatic tendencies to move toward drug cues. Across studies, implicit measures predicted alcohol and drug use, and in many studies they predicted use beyond what explicit measures, such as questionnaires about attitudes and expectancies, could explain. They also found that implicit associations were stronger in people who used substances more heavily and that their influence on behavior was greater when people had less capacity for control. They cautioned that many implicit measures have modest reliability.
A Model of Automatic Drug Use
Tiffany (1990) proposed a cognitive model in which, with repeated practice, drug use becomes an automatized action: a sequence of behaviors, from noticing cues to obtaining and using a drug, that can run quickly, with little effort and without awareness. In this model, urges and craving are not what drive most drug use. Instead, urges arise when the automatic sequence is blocked, for example when the drug is unavailable or the person is trying to abstain, and nonautomatic, effortful processes are engaged. This explains why people sometimes use without feeling strong craving and why craving is most intense when they try to stop. It also gives implicit measures a theoretical basis: they may capture parts of the automatic system that self-reports of craving miss.
Explicit Measures Still Matter
Implicit measures do not replace questionnaires and interviews. Stated craving, confidence in staying sober and expectancies about alcohol all predict outcomes, and they are quick, reliable and meaningful to clients. Wiers and Stacy's argument is that implicit measures add to explicit ones, capturing processes that self-report misses, not that they should substitute for them. A program that added implicit tasks would still need its existing assessments.
How Clients Might Experience the Tasks
Computer tasks that measure responses to alcohol images could unsettle clients early in treatment, raising craving in the very people the program is trying to protect. Some clients might feel tested or tricked. Any use would need clear explanation, consent and attention to how clients feel afterward.
Comparing the Tasks
| Task | What it measures | How it works | Limits |
|---|---|---|---|
| Implicit Association Test | Strength of associations, such as alcohol and positive | Faster sorting when paired categories are associated | Modest reliability; scores influenced by task factors |
| Addiction Stroop | Attentional capture by drug words | Slower naming of the color of drug words than neutral words | Small effects; slowing has several possible causes |
| Dot-probe | Attention toward drug images | Faster responses to probes replacing drug images | Low reliability in many studies |
| Approach-avoidance task | Automatic tendency to approach drug cues | Faster pulling than pushing of drug images with a joystick | Requires equipment; mixed findings across substances |
Reliability and Validity
Two qualities decide whether a measure is useful. Reliability is whether it gives consistent results; validity is whether it measures what it claims to. Many implicit tasks have test-retest reliability well below that of standard questionnaires, partly because reaction times are noisy and partly because the processes they measure may genuinely fluctuate. Their validity is supported by predictive findings but complicated by alternative explanations: slower responses to alcohol words in a Stroop task might reflect emotional reactions or simple unfamiliarity rather than attentional capture. These limits do not make the tasks worthless, but they shape what they can be used for.
Should the Program Use Them?
Marcus concluded that the tasks are useful for research and for teaching but not, at present, for individual clinical decisions. Their modest reliability means that a single client's score may change substantially on retesting, and the evidence that they predict relapse comes from group averages. Using them at intake to judge a client's risk could mislead staff. They could, however, play a role in client education: completing a task and seeing their own faster responses to alcohol images might help clients like Denise understand that part of their response to alcohol happens before thought, which supports the planning approach the program already uses. The next module considers attentional bias in more detail, and later modules consider whether such tasks can be used to change implicit processes.
Conclusion
Implicit measures infer associations and tendencies from response speed rather than self-report. Greenwald and colleagues' Implicit Association Test showed the method's promise, Wiers and Stacy's review found implicit measures predicted substance use beyond explicit ones and Tiffany's model explains why automatic processes matter. Because of modest reliability, the program should use these tasks for research and education rather than individual decisions.
References
Greenwald, A. G., McGhee, D. E., & Schwartz, J. L. K. (1998). Measuring individual differences in implicit cognition: The implicit association test. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 74(6), 1464-1480. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.74.6.1464
Tiffany, S. T. (1990). A cognitive model of drug urges and drug-use behavior: Role of automatic and nonautomatic processes. Psychological Review, 97(2), 147-168. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-295X.97.2.147
Wiers, R. W., & Stacy, A. W. (2006). Implicit cognition and addiction. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 15(6), 292-296. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8721.2006.00455.x
Reading the ADC 515 Module 3 assignment instructions
The third module of ADC 515 typically asks for a paper on implicit cognition and how it is measured. Take direction from the Module 3 page in your Aspen course; the Michigan program is fictional. Explain why researchers developed implicit measures. Describe how major tasks work, with their logic. Review what the measures predict and how reliable they are. Connect them to a theory of automatic processes in addiction, so the reader knows why the tasks should matter. Appraise whether and how they could be used clinically. Reference sources in APA 7, and avoid claiming more precision for the tasks than the evidence supports. If you recommend a use, say exactly what decision the measure would inform and what it would not.
Inside the ADC 515 Module 3 example
The composite clinical director of a Michigan residential program asks Marcus, a graduate intern, whether to add implicit measures to intake. Greenwald, McGhee and Schwartz's Journal of Personality and Social Psychology article introduces the Implicit Association Test. Wiers and Stacy's Current Directions in Psychological Science article reviews implicit measures in addiction and their predictive value. Tiffany's Psychological Review article explains drug use as automatized action and urges as signs of blocked automatic sequences. A four-row table compares the Implicit Association Test, Stroop, dot-probe and approach-avoidance tasks. The recommendation is to use them in research and training, not individual diagnosis. A short section suggests using a task in client education, so that clients see their automatic responses for themselves.
ADC 515 Module 3 rubric: what earns full marks
Measurement papers earn credit for explaining how measures work, reporting evidence on validity and reliability and appraising clinical use honestly. This example explains the reaction-time logic of the Implicit Association Test step by step. It reports Wiers and Stacy's evidence that implicit measures add predictive value while noting that their reliability is often modest. Tiffany's model gives the measures a theoretical home, explaining why automatic processes might be missed by questionnaires. The table compares tasks on what they measure and their limits. The recommendation distinguishes group-level research use from individual clinical decisions. The educational use proposed for clients shows a creative but cautious application.
Common ADC 515 Module 3 mistakes, and how to avoid them
Measurement papers often describe tasks without explaining their logic. Explain what a faster or slower response is taken to mean. Report reliability, which for many implicit tasks is lower than for questionnaires. Distinguish group-level prediction from individual assessment. Connect measures to theory. Be cautious about clinical use; a task that predicts relapse in a sample may not tell you much about one client. Note practical issues such as equipment, time and how clients experience the tasks, since a test that feels like a trick can damage trust. Explain any task to clients beforehand and share results in a way that informs rather than labels them.
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ADC 515 Module 3 questions, answered
What does ADC 515 Module 3 usually ask for?
Aspen's ADC 515 covers implicit cognition and its measurement in this module, so a paper on implicit measures, what they predict and their clinical use is typical. Look at your Module 3 prompt.
What is the Implicit Association Test?
A task by Greenwald, McGhee and Schwartz that infers the strength of associations between concepts from how quickly people sort words or images when categories are paired.
Do implicit measures predict drug use?
Wiers and Stacy reviewed evidence that implicit measures predict substance use beyond what explicit measures such as stated attitudes predict, though effects are modest.
Where can I find a free ADC 515 Module 3 sample paper?
This page has the full paper: how implicit measures work, what they predict, a table comparing four tasks and advice on clinical use.
What did Tiffany propose about drug urges?
Tiffany proposed that drug use becomes automatic and that urges arise when automatic drug-use sequences are blocked, rather than urges being what drives use.