Many studies have reported poorer performance by alcoholics as compared to nonalcoholic controls in general cognitive abilities or intelligence (Sullivan et al., 2000b; Sullivan et al., 2002b; Davies et al., 2005; Rosenbloom et al., 2007), but the deficits have been mild, or they tended to improve within a year of abstinence (Bates et al., 2002). Other studies have reported no alcoholism-related impairments in general intelligence (Oscar-Berman et al., 2004; Fein et al., 2006; Foisy et al., 2007; Marinkovic et al., 2009; Sullivan et al., 2010; Pitel et al., 2012b). When general abilities are assessed according to discrete component factors and functional domains, a different picture emerges. That is, investigators who have examined performance on specific IQ subtests or have employed extensive batteries of specialized neuropsychological tests have observed alcoholism-related impairments in some domains but not in others (Tivis et al., 1995; Beatty et al., 2000; Davies et al., 2005; Fein et al., 2006; Oscar-Berman et al., 2009). For example, Davies et al. (2005) reported no differences between alcoholics and controls on prorated Full Scale IQ scores, but alcoholics performed worse
