Card perseveration task performance and post-task feeling states: Relationship to drug use in adolescents

This study examined whether performance on the Card Perseveration Task (Card Task) and self-report of feeling state after the task are related to self-report of drug use. The evaluation was of 64 adolescents from an adolescent psychiatric outpatient clinic (40 males, aged 15.5 years, SD = 1.6; 24 females aged 16.9 years, SD = 1.5). Drug use histories were obtained using a substance dependence symptom checklist based on DSM-III-R. The Card Task was administered, and after completion, a Post-Task Self-Report (PTSR) was administered. A factor analysis with varimax rotation grouped the 28 items of the PTSR into Distress, Happy, Satisfied, and Wanting to Win subscales. Correlations of drug use with performance on the Card Task and the PTSR subscales were obtained. Cards Played on the Card Task were correlated with alcohol (cc = .31, p ≤.01); marijuana (cc = .35, p ≤ .01) and polydrug (cc = .26, p ≤ .05) dependence symptoms. Money Won on the Card Task was correlated negatively with nicotine (cc = -.26, p ≤ .05) and marijuana (cc = -.27, p ≤ .05) dependence symptoms. The PTSR Distress subscale correlated with nicotine (cc = .49, p ≤ .001), alcohol (cc = .37, p ≤ .01), marijuana (cc = .39, p ≤ .01), and polydrug (cc = .49, p ≤ .001) dependence symptoms. These findings provide evidence that both the Card Task and feeling states associated with task performance are related to self-reports of drug use.