Annoyance response of nonsmokers to cigarette smoke

In three experiments, nonsmoking subjects rated their annoyance by task environments while either exposed or not exposed to ambient tobacco smoke. In Exps. 1 and 2 subjects rated annoyance with the environment while exposed to three intensities of noise, and in Exp. 3 subjects rated annoyance while performing multiplication problems under conditions of high and low task motivation. The source of the ambient smoke in Exp. 1 was a smoke pump. For Exps. 2 and 3, the source of the smoke was confederate subjects. No differences in annoyance were obtained in Exps. 1 and 2 as a function of exposure to smoke. Exp. 3 showed that nonsmokers' annoyance to a task environment is dependent upon task motivation and exposure to ambient smoke. In Exp. 3 nonsmokers exposed to smoke were more annoyed than those not exposed under low motivating conditions. When nonsmokers were highly motivated in the task environment those exposed to smoke were significantly less annoyed than those not exposed.     

A noninvasive method for delivering controlled doses of nicotine via cigarette smoke

A cigarette-smoke delivery system is described in which nicotine dosage was delimited by having the subject inhale a measured amount of smoke to a predetermined depth and duration of inhalation. A plastic syringe was used to “inject” a specified amount of cigarette smoke into the subject’s mouth, and an airbag containing 1 liter of air was used to provide a “chaser” with a fixed volume of inhalation for the smoke. Using plasma nicotine boost as an indicator, dose control was found to be nearly linear for the three dose levels employed; in the high-dose condition, plasma nicotine levels were moderately consistent within subjects over three successive administrations. Between-subject variability was considerably greater than within-subject variability, however, suggesting that each smoker obtained a characteristic nicotine boost that reflected individual differences in nicotine pharmacokinetics in addition to nicotine intake per se.     

Quitting-unmotivated and quitting-motivated cigarette smokers exhibit different patterns of cue-elicited brain activation when anticipating an opportunity to smoke

The authors examined the effects of smoking expectancy on cue-reactivity among those motivated and those unmotivated to quit smoking using functional MRI. Cue-elicited activation was observed in the rostral prefrontal cortex (PFC) in smokers who expected to smoke within seconds, but not in those who expected to have to wait hours before having the chance to smoke, regardless of quitting motivation. For quitting-unmotivated smokers expecting to smoke, rostral PFC activation was strongly positively correlated with the activation of several areas previously linked to cue-reactivity, including the medial orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) and rostral anterior cingulate cortex (ACC). In contrast, there was a nonsignificant negative relationship between activation of the rostral PFC and activation of the medial OFC/rostral ACC in quitting-motivated smokers expecting to smoke. Results extend previous work examining the effects of smoking expectancy and highlight the utility of examining interregional covariation during cue exposure. Findings also suggest that investigators may need to pay close attention to the motivational contexts associated with their experiments when studying cue-reactivity, as these contexts can modulate not only responses to drug cues, but perhaps also the functional implications of observed activity.     

An instrumental cigarette smoke monitor designed for the direct measurement of smoke particulate matter generated in human smoking studies

An instrumental cigarette smoke monitor (CSM) system designed for human smoking studies has been developed and validated using a smoking machine as a human surrogate. The cigarette holder contains both smoke-mixing and flow-measurement orifices and a smoke-concentration sensor. Smoke flow through the holder and smoke concentration in the holder are determined simultaneously. The two signals are multiplied electronically and the product signal integrated. The integrated response is directly proportional to the amount of particulate matter collected immediately downstream of the holder, regardless of cigarette type or the particular way in which the cigarette is smoked. The CSM is sufficiently sensitive to quantitatively determine the amount of smoke TPM generated from cigarettes in the 1-mg Federal Trade Commission tar-delivery category.     

Behavior analysis of cigarette smoking

Patterns of cigarette smoking, treated as series of discrete events in time, were investigated with a variety of quantitative techniques designed to characterize individual subject smoking series and to illuminate the relationship between cigarette smoking and environmental events. Data were collected from a total of 35 subjects who were either participants in residential laboratory studies or in a smoking cessation program. Cigarette smoking events were found to be fairly irregularly distributed with respect to time within individual subject series. However, strong dependencies were found between the occurrence in time of individual acts of cigarette smoking and coffee drinking. In addition, the distribution and frequency of smoking events throughout one-hour activity sequences were found to be dependent upon the nature of the activity, and the temporal scheduling of activities was found to affect several quantitative indices of smoking patterns.     

When the death makes you smoke: A terror management perspective on the effectiveness of cigarette on-pack warnings

One of the principal vehicles for informing tobacco consumers about the risks of smoking is the warning message on each cigarette package. Based on terror management theory, the present study investigates the impact of mortality-salient warnings on cigarette packages compared to warnings with no mortality threat. Results suggest that to the degree that smoking is a source of self-esteem, later attitudes towards smoking become more positive if the warning message is mortality-salient. On the contrary, if the warning is terrifying but not mortality-salient and relates to the source of self-esteem, smoking attitudes become more negative with higher smoking-based self-esteem. Thus, mortality-salient warnings may increase the tendency to favor smoking under certain circumstances. This fatal ironic effect highlights the importance of a risk communication that matches the self-esteem contingencies of the recipients, and it has urgent implications for health care policy.     

A postulate-based analysis of comparative preference statements

There has been a growing interest in the study of preferences for their utility in solving problems related to decision making. Most of the preference representation languages developed in the literature are based on comparative preference statements since they offer a simple and intuitive way for expressing preferences. They can be further interpreted following different semantics, imparting a greater flexibility on how outcomes can be compared. So far the main objective has been to rank-order the set of outcomes given a set of comparative preference statements and one or several semantics. Tackling this problem from a different angle, we look into the behavioural aspects of the preference semantics and statements by attempting to formalise the intuition behind them using postulates studied in preference logics and non-monotonic reasoning. We select the postulates w.r.t. three criteria: coherence, syntax independence and inference. Thus, our analysis provides a means to determine those properties that are satisfied for a given preference semantics.     

A preparation for the experimental analysis of human cigarette smoking behavior

A preparation for the experimental analysis of cigarette smoking is described in detail. The preparation permits the intensive study of cigarette smoking in individual subjects under controlled laboratory conditions. A variety of behavioral and physiological measures used include rate and pattern of puffing, duration of each puff, time spent smoking cigarettes, expired air carbon monoxide levels, cigarette butt weights, and subjective rating scales of various aspects of smoking. The preparation is reliable and permits relatively unobtrusive monitoring of smoking performance. Cigarette smoking occurs in orderly patterns, within subjects; it varies as a function of number of cigarettes provided and hours of smoking deprivation.     

A comparative analysis of serial and free recall

Multitrial free and serial recall tasks differ both in recall instruction and in presentation order across trials. Waugh (1961) compared these paradigms with an intermediate condition: free recall with constant presentation order. She concluded that differences between free and serial recall were due only to recall instructions, and not to presentation order. The present study reevaluated the relation between free and serial recall, using Waugh's three conditions. By examining recall transitions and the organization of information retained across trials, we conclude that presentation order is an important factor, causing participants to exhibit the same temporal associations in serial recall and in free recall with constant presentation order.     

A comparative quantitative analysis of Greek orthographic transparency

Orthographic transparency refers to the systematicity in the mapping between orthographic letter sequences and phonological phoneme sequences in both directions, for reading and spelling. Measures of transparency previously used in the analysis of orthographies of other languages include regularity, consistency, and entropy. However, previous reports have typically been hampered by severe restrictions, such as using only monosyllables or only word-initial phonemes. Greek is sufficiently transparent to allow complete sequential alignment between graphemes and phonemes, therefore permitting full analyses at both letter and grapheme levels, using every word in its entirety. Here, we report multiple alternative measures of transparency, using both type and token counts, and compare these with estimates for other languages. We discuss the problems stemming from restricted analysis sets and the implications for psycholinguistic experimentation and computational modeling of reading and spelling.     

Use of carbon monoxide breath validation in assessing exposure to cigarette smoke in a worksite population

Assessed the usefulness of carbon monoxide (CO) breath validation of self-reported smoking status in a large worksite population (N = 4,647). CO assessment was performed as part of a baseline survey procedure. CO levels differed substantially in relation to self-reported smoking status and amount smoked. Correcting for ambient exposure (estimated by mean CO levels among never smokers) produced more satisfactory results than uncorrected CO levels. Striking company differences were observed in mean CO exposures among self-reported never smokers. An unexpected finding was that 17.1% of current smokers reported smoking less than daily. Although the CO measure was excellent in detecting moderate and heavy smokers, it was inadequate in detecting occasional and light smokers. If detection of occasional or lighter smoking is critical to the purposes of the study, the more expensive (but more accurate) cotinine measure is preferred.     

Coping in childhood: A comparative evaluation of different relaxation techniques

Abstract

This paper reports on the evaluation of relaxation trainings to improve the coping of children with stress situations. Over five training sessions, different relaxation techniques were presented to children to evaluate their short-term and long-term effects on different criteria. Included were a sensoric approach to relaxation (the Progressive Muscle Relaxation), an imaginative approach, and an imaginative approach with additional sensoric elements (combined training). Two control conditions were added. One of them presented non-tension producing stories instead of supplying a systematic relaxation training. The children of the second control condition participated at the measurements without any intervention. The participants were 826 children aged 7–14. The results show clear short-term effects on physiological parameters (blood pressure, pulse rate, body temperature) as well as on subjective ratings of the children's mood and somatic condition. In relation to the overall changes, the differences between the training conditions are comparatively small. Moreover, the long-term effects (recorded one week and two months after the five training sessions) were small in relation to the short-term effects.     

A comparative study in multiple-factor analysis of neurotic tendency

The original aim of this investigation was to discover what relations exist between race attitudes and certain personality traits. For that purpose, a standard neurotic inventory and an attitude scale were applied to three dissimilar groups of subjects, and the results, obtained by multiple-factor analysis carried out independently for each of the three groups, compared with one another. The components of neurotic tendency, as displayed by each of the three groups, show a high measure of agreement and appear to be reconcilable with other interpretations of neurotic personality. So far as the original aim of the study is concerned, there appears to be a slight but significant tendency for the neurotic factor of hypersensitiveness to affect the race attitudes of Europeans towards the native in South Africa in a negative or unfavorable direction.