Enhancing neuropsychological performance in chronic cannabis users: The role of motivation

Abstract

This study sought to determine whether cannabis users demonstrate differential effort during neuropsychological assessment compared to nonusers, and whether better performance can be induced in participants with a motivational statement prior to testing. For two groups of participants, cannabis users and nonusers, either a motivational or a neutral statement was administered prior to neuropsychological testing. The motivational statement resulted in better performance on a test of verbal learning and memory for users than did the neutral statement, while nonusers in the motivational and neutral conditions did not differ in performance. Implications and future directions are discussed.

Keywords:

• Effort
• Motivation
• Learning
• Memory
• Cannabis