All participants were screened using the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV (SCID) (First, Spitzer, Gibbon, & Williams, 1998) and structured health questionnaires. Upon initial assessment, subjects were excluded if they had fewer than 8 years of education, a significant history of medical (e.g., epilepsy, stroke, multiple sclerosis, uncontrolled diabetes, or loss of consciousness > 30 minutes), psychiatric (i.e., schizophrenia or bipolar I disorder) or neurological disorder (e.g., neurodegenerative disease). Other exclusionary criteria were recent (i.e., past 3 months) substance dependence other than alcohol in the ALC group or any DSM-IV Axis I disorder in the NC group. Severity of depression symptoms was assessed with the Beck Depression Inventory-II (Beck, Steer, & Brown, 1996) in both groups. All participants underwent a semi-structured timeline follow-back interview (Skinner, 1982; Skinner & Sheu, 1982) to quantify lifetime alcohol consumption.
