Cognitive Control in Two Groups of Adolescence with High and Low Tendency to Addiction:A Comparative Study

The results of the recent researches suggest that addiction threatens physical, mental, social, and cognitive health in addition to physical health. Of course, the disruption of psychological, social, and cognitive functions can also lead an individual to addiction. This relation is reciprocal, in a way that psycho-social and cognitive dysfunction can lead an individual to addiction.
The purpose of this study was to investigate the role of cognitive function of inhibition and planning of tendency to addiction in adolescents. This causal-comparative study was conducted in two stages. In stage one, 570 freshmen from Arak University (aged18-20) were selected. They were asked to answer the Iranian Addiction Potential Scale (IAPS) (Zargar 2006). Based on the performance in IAPS, a group of 44 students with high- and a group of 45 with low score (10% of top and 10% of bottom) were selected for stage two. In stage two, participants were asked to perform two tasks: Stroop and Tower of London tests to measure cognitive inhibition and planning respectively.
Results of performing two sets of MANOVA revealed that there is no significant difference between high and low groups in stroop task, but the difference in Tower of London measures were significant, and low group had better performance.
It might be a remarkable result, and we may be able to conclude that cognitive functions, specifically cognitive planning, are good predictors of tendency to addiction in adolescents.