Most research on cognitive processes and drug abuse has focused on theories and methods of explicit cognition, asking people directly to introspect about the causes of their behavior. However, it may be questioned to what extent such methods reflect fundamental aspects of human cognition and motivation. In response to this issue, basic cognition researchers have started to assess implicit cognitions, defined as “introspectively unidentified (or inaccurately identified) traces of past experience that mediate feeling, thought, or action.” Such approaches are less sensitive to self-justification and social desirability and offer other advantages over traditional approaches underscored by explicit cognition.

Wiers' Handbook of Implicit Cognition and Addiction lays the groundwork for new approaches to the study and addictive behaviors as the first handbook to apply principles of implicit cognition to the field of addiction. This Handbook features the work of an interdisciplinary group of internationally renowned contributing North American and European authors who have brought together developments in basic research on implicit cognition with recent developments in addiction research.