Attentional Bias - Smoking Cues

Smoking Cues

The Stroop paradigm is used in attentional bias research to distinguish types of smoking cues and their effect on smokers. Research using the Stroop paradigm tested the effect of smoking related words such as cigarette, puff, and smoke, with negative effect words such as sick, pain and guilty and positive effect words such as safe, glad and hopeful and neutral words such as tool, shovel and hammer. Results showed a strong correlation in a slower reaction time between smoking related and negative-effect word lists. A slower reaction time to negative and smoking word lists indicates lingering attention or attentional bias by the participant. This is significant because the task call for the participant to focus on the color of the word rather than meaning, possibly implicating an underlying negative feeling towards their smoking behavior. Smokers have attentional bias to a subliminal images and therefore are more likely to be influenced by environmental cues such as seeing other people smoking, ads for cigarettes or triggers such as coffee or alcohol. This idea further illustrates that influence of smoking cues implicate that dependence on nicotine is reinforced by attentional bias.Smokers may have underlying negative feelings toward smoking, when asked to think of the negative consequences of smoking, they showed less craving than those who were encouraged to smoke. This illustrates the influence of attentional bias on environmental smoking cues and could contribute to a smokers’ inability to quit.

Similar Stroop paradigm studies have explained that attentional bias is not dependent on smoking itself, but rather the person who is the smoker displays attentional bias. A recent study required one group of smokers to refrain from smoking the night before and another less than an hour before. Abstinence from smoking created slower reaction time, but a smoke break between study sessions showed increased reaction time. Researchers say this shows that nicotine dependence intensifies attention, but does not directly depend on smoking itself due to lack of evidence. The longer reaction time suggests smokers craving a cigarette linger on smoking related words. Smokers and smokers attempting to quit displayed the same slower reaction time for smoking related words, supporting research that implies attentional bias is a behavioral mechanism versus a dependence mechanism.