Forty alcoholics and 40 controls were compared on tests of frontal lobe functions, abstracting ability, and verbal and picture memory. Alcoholics were inferior to controls, and heavy drinkers poorer than moderate ones (life-time alcohol consumption) on picture memory and a verbal fluency test of frontal lobe functions. Verbal memory and abstracting ability were not significantly impaired. Although this pattern may indicate that frontal and right temporal areas of the brain are particularly vulnerable to the effects of chronic alcoholism, the possibility that it may merely reflect general sensitivity of the tests to brain damage cannot be ruled out.