Fig. 1. Design and subjective responses during encoding.

a Procedure. Participants first completed intake assessments, in which baseline real-world drinking behavior (over the previous week) was assessed in patients with alcohol use disorder (AUD). Next, participants completed two blocks of object/scene encoding with alcoholic beverages or neutral objects. Cue order (alcohol vs. neutral objects) was counterbalanced across participants. After a delay, they were tested for their memory for the individual items and their associated scenes. Finally, patients with AUD were tracked for 4 weeks to assess prospective real-world drinking behavior. b Task design. During encoding, participants vividly associated unique pairs of objects and scenes. Ratings of subjective responses were assessed for every trial. During the item memory test, recognition of individual objects (plus content-matched foils) was assessed. During the associative memory test, participants were asked to recall whether the scene paired with the object was indoor or outdoor, and then to select the scene from a list of photographs. These photographs contained the exact image seen during encoding (specific associative memory), and an image portraying the same type of scene, but a different photograph (gist associative memory). c Examples of alcohol-related objects (red border, left) and neutral objects (gray border, right). d Subjective ratings during encoding for object/scene pairs containing alcohol (red) or neutral objects (gray). MOD moderate drinkers, AUD patients with alcohol use disorder. Error bars = +/−1 SE.