The impact of smoking urges on working memory performance.

Abstract

The effect of smoking urges on cognitive performance is relatively short-lived (R. A. Zwaan, R. A. Stanfield, & C. M. Madden, 2000). The authors examined whether this results from the short-lived nature of the elicited urge itself or from practice effects on the cognitive task. Smokers listened to 1 of 2 imagery scripts (urge vs. neutral) and subsequently performed 2 cognitive tasks (math and language comprehension). Exposure to the urge script produced significantly less accurate performance at the onset of the 1st task than exposure to the neutral script, but there was no difference at the onset of the 2nd task. Thus, the quick disappearance of the urge effect seems to be due to the transient nature of the elicited urge itself rather than to practice effects.