Dr. Treloar Padovano recently published an article in Psychological Science titled, "The Altered Course of Learning: How Alcohol Outcome Expectancies are Shaped by First Drinking Experiences" with co-authors, Drs. Tim Janssen, Alexander Sokolovsky, and Kristina M. Jackson.
Highlights from Dr. Treloar Padovano:
"We hold expectancies about virtually everything we do. We expect that if we do X, then Y will happen. Expectancies are first shaped by observations of other people's behavior, but these learned expectations also influence the lessons that we take from our own direct experiences.
This work offers an application of expectancy theory that capitalizes on the first direct experiences an adolescent every has with alcohol, from the first sip of alcohol to first drink to first heavy-drinking situation and beyond. We show how expectancies change leading up to these drinking milestones, which illustrates vicarious learning. Next, we show how expectancies change after these milestones, which illustrates learning from direct experience."