Table 1.

Overview of experimental psychopathology paradigms developed for alcohol use disorder research.

Class	Variant	Description	Dependent Variables	Strengths	Weaknesses	Key Citations
Alcohol Administration	Oral Administration	Participants are administered experimenter controlled doses of alcohol to target BrAC levels (doses often computed based on participant characteristics e.g. sex and weight)	Subjective Responses to Alcohol (e.g. BAES, SHAS, DEQ) Objective Responses (e.g. static ataxia, grooved pegboard)	Ecologically valid route of administration Relatively inexpensive	Poor control over observed BrAC Variability in time to reach peak BrAC	Schuckit, 1984 King et. al. 2011 Brick 2006
	Intravenous Administration	Ethanol-Saline solution infused into patents’ veins to target BrAC’s (infusion rate computed based on participant characteristics e.g. sex and weight)	Subjective Responses to Alcohol (e.g. BAES, SHAS, DEQ, POMS) Objective Responses (e.g. grooved pegboard)	High level of control over BrAC trajectory. Ability to maintain BrAC during testing	Poor ecological validity Relatively expensive	Ray & Hutchison 2004 Ray et al., 2009 Bujarski et al. 2015
	Alcohol Clamp	Alcohol administered intravenously in order to maintain stable BrAC over extended periods of time (e.g. > 1 hour)	Subjective Responses to Alcohol (e.g. BAES, SHAS, DEQ) Objective Responses (e.g. static ataxia, EtOH elimination rate)	Permits rigorous examination of acute tolerance/sensitivity Highest level of control over BrAC	Poor ecological validity Relatively difficult to implement	Ramchandani et al. 1999 Ramchandani et al. 2006
Alcohol Self-Administration	Oral Self-Administration	Participant permitted to consume prepared mini-drinks often with a financial disincentive. Typically a priming dose of alcohol is administered prior to self-administration.	Indices of motivation for alcohol (e.g. number of drinks consumed, consumption rate, reinforcement breakpoint)	Strong ecological validity Relatively easily implemented	Poor control over BrAC and timing Low maximum number of drinks (~8 mini-drinks)	de Wit et al. 1989 O’Malley et al. 2002 McKee et al. 2009
	Computerized Alcohol Infusion System (CAIS)	Computer controlled alcohol infusion system that allows participants to self-administer IV mini-drinks. Typically a priming dose of alcohol is administered prior to self-administration.	Indices of motivation for alcohol (e.g. number of mini-drinks administered, peak BrAC, total alcohol infused, reinforcement breakpoint)	High level of control over the BrAC Flexible in BrAC curve parameters Implementable BAC safety limits	Poorer ecological validity Expensive Relatively difficult to implement	Zimmermann et al. 2008 Zimmermann et al. 2009 Hendershot et al. 2014
Alcohol Cue-Reactivity	In Vivo Alcohol Cues	Participants are presented with and asked to hold, smell, and manipulate their preferred alcoholic beverage. Cue reactivity is compared to a non-alcoholic beverage control.	Subjective craving (e.g. AUQ) Mood (e.g. POMS) Psychophysiology	Strong ecological validity Highly salient cue presentation	Variability in preferred drink and cue salience Carryover issues	Monti et al. 1987 McGeary et al. 2006
	Pictorial Alcohol Cues	Computerized presentation of alcohol-related cues versus control cues matched on multiple factors (e.g. beverages, color, and visual salience).	Subjective craving (single items) Reaction time to alcohol-paired target stimuli Psychophysiology	Easily combined with other paradigms (e.g. neuroimaging) Ability to present many trials	Relatively low salience cue Difficult to administer longer validated measures	Townshend & Duka 2001 Schact et al. 2013
Stress-Reactivity	Trier Social Stress Task	Participants perform socially stressful activities in front of confederates (e.g. mental arithmetic and public speaking)	Self-reported affect Subjective craving Cortisol Psychophysiological measures (e.g. HR, BP)	High intensity stressor Robust cortisol and psychophysiological responses	Relies on social stress Requires confederates, increasing variability	Söderpalm & de Wit 2002 de Wit et al. 2003
	Guided Imagery Task	Participants generate scripts of unresolved stressors, which are turned into an auditory stimulus presented to the participant.	Self-reported affect Subjective craving Cortisol Psychophysiological measures (e.g. HR, BP)	Personalized stressor Relatively easy to implement	Stressor tends to produce only mild cortisol responses Variability in the salience of the stressor	Sinha et al. 2000 Fox et al. 2007