Table 2.

Cognitive Characteristics of Sons of Male Alcoholics (SOMA’s)

Compared with family history-negative (FHN) subjects, SOMA’s show consistently poor performance in the following areas: Performance on tests of linguistic ability Categorization and grouping (abstract thinking) abilities Problem-solving skills Full-scale (total) IQ scores Performance (visual-perceptual) IQ scores1

Compared with FHN’s and children of alcoholics in general, SOMA’s show consistently poor performance in the following areas: Learning and memory skills Visual-spatial abilities Perceptual-motor skills

¹The performance IQ score is a measure derived from five separate tests of perceptual organization, including nonverbal reasoning skills, the ability to employ visual images in thinking, and the ability to process visual and spatial information.