Drug taking behavior is assumed to occur automatically, yet few scientific models of this process exist. Six experiments are proposed to study changes in automaticity of cognitive processing of words representing smoking expectancies (SE words) in three groups, representing a cross-section of nicotine dependence (SoND), as a model of how memories of smoking outcome expectancies (SOEs) influence behavior. SoND is characterized in a random, community sample to form three groups: 1) never smoked daily, 2) non-dependent current smoker, and 3) dependent current smoker. ND is defined by established clinical criteria. Work will proceed in two phases 1) to obtain a set of words describing the domain of SOEs and differentiating SoND and 2) to assess changes in automaticity of processing these SE words from memory as a function of SoND. In Phase 1, the memory network relevant to SOEs will be empirically modeled using multidimensional scaling and mapped as a function of SoND. This work will provide a topographical map of SE words in which the distance between the words, i.e., memory nodes, represents their degree of association, i.e., a model of the memory network. Vectors in this space will represent the dimensions of smoking-expectancy semantic memory. The methodology for Phase 1 will follow closely work that has been done with cognitive models of alcohol outcome expectancies to allow for comparison of alcohol and smoking phenomena and for examination of their cross-drug generalizability. In Phase 2, several experimental paradigms will assess the presence of automatic processes and nonautomatic processes for neutral words and SE words in smoking relevant and neutral contexts in order to examine the relative accessibility of the memory nodes for SOEs. Non-automatic cognitive processes and automatic cognitive processes are conceptualized as shifting in terms of their predominance in processing SE words as a function of SoND. Non-automatic cognitive processes are predicted to predominate in access to SE words from memory in nonsmokers. In regular, but non-dependent smokers, the two processes take equal precedence. In dependent smokers, automaticity predominates. This work advances knowledge of cognition in ND by evaluating automaticity of memory representations of SOEs as a function of SoND and showing the extent to which they are parallel.
| Mullennix, John W; Kilbey, M Marlyne; Fisicaro, Sebastiano A et al. (2003) The representation of smoking expectancies by single-word adjectives and their relationship to smoking characteristics. Nicotine Tob Res 5:681-94 |
