Temporal horizons of cigarette satiety: determining the window of time over which recent smoking influences motivation to smoke.

One of the hallmarks of drug addiction is a limitation of the temporal horizon of events that affect the behavior of drug users. The purpose of this experiment was to examine the time period over which smoking was influenced by an earlier opportunity to smoke. Baseline sessions measured how much was smoked in a current opportunity when it was preceded by a 2-h wait time in which no smoking was allowed. After the baseline phase, we examined the effects of temporal distance when an earlier opportunity to smoke (upon completion of a fixed ratio 100) preceded current smoking (upon completion of a progressive ratio). Temporal distance between these two opportunities to smoke was varied from 0 to 120 min. We found that current smoking for the group was reduced from baseline levels when the temporal distance was 0 min. At temporal distances ranging from 30 to 90 min, the individual's smoking returned to levels that were similar to baseline. Breakpoints were also a function of earlier smoking, and latencies to first puff of the session followed a similar trend. These findings provide evidence of the limited temporal horizons related to smoking bouts of smokers and may provide a useful measure for metabolism differences across populations. In addition, we suggest that the quantitative description of satiety provided by our procedures may validate drug replacement therapies involved in cessation treatments.