Note on selective effects of short-term tobacco-abstinence on complex versus simple mental tasks.

Effects of a 15-hr. abstention from tobacco smoking in 12 habitual smokers were examined with 3 complex cognitive tests and 2 simple perceptual tests. Abstaining from tobacco led to improved performance on the complex tests but no change on the simple ones. The results are interpreted in terms of the inverted-U relation between performance and arousal.