Automaticity of smoking behaviour: the relationship between dual-task performance, daily cigarette intake and subjective nicotine effects.

Recent research using a dual-task procedure indicates that smoking behaviour can proceed automatically (i.e. it makes minimal demands on cognitive resources) in experienced, but not novice, smokers (Baxter and Hinson, 2001). The increased cognitive load of smoking behaviour in novice smokers was inferred from their slower response times (RTs) to auditory probes during smoking, relative to a baseline (no-smoking) condition. However, this effect of smoking behaviour on RTs may be confounded by the subjective effects of nicotine (e.g. 'head rush'), which may be greater in those who smoke less frequently. We employed the dual-task procedure to assess the relationships between (a) the effect of smoking on RTs to auditory probes, (b) the frequency of smoking behaviour (daily cigarette intake) and (c) the subjective effects of smoking. Results indicated that infrequent smokers showed an increased cognitive load (i.e. slower RTs to probes) during smoking, compared with frequent smokers, but there were no group differences in the subjective effects of smoking. Results suggest that smoking behaviour becomes automatized in those who smoke more frequently, and this is unconfounded by the subjective effects of nicotine.