Semantic memory refers to the ability to recall or recognize facts including personal information, concepts, and general knowledge about the external world, independent of personal experience and spatial/temporal context. In the context of alcoholism, individuals in treatment learn about alcohol and alcohol dependence, the medical and psychiatric consequences associated with excessive alcohol consumption and strategies and techniques to maintain sobriety. Procedural memory for cognitive and behavioral skills that operate at an automatic, unconscious level and independent of episodic memory could also be relevant for successful behavior modification. Over time, AUD individuals supplant new behavioral strategies and procedures to cope with urges and cravings for alcohol and previously entrenched habitual patterns. However, at treatment entry, alcoholic patients with cognitive impairment may exhibit difficulties in acquiring new semantic and procedural information, potentially hampering the efficiency—the essential ability—of cognitive-behavioral therapies (Pitel et al., 2007b), during which patients are taught to anticipate and recognize high-risk situations that could lead to relapse (Assanangkornchai and Srisurapanont, 2007; Berglund et al., 2003; Clay et al., 2008).
