Conditioning Arbitrary Stimuli to Cigarette Smoke Intake: a Preliminary Study

This study represents an attempt to classically condition arbitrary stimuli to cigarette smoke intake. A smoker either smoked or mock-smoked a cigarette in two discriminative contexts for 20 sessions. The contingencies were reversed during an additional last two sessions. Measures of heart rate, skin temperature, and puff duration were monitored during all sessions. Results suggested that both manipulations of smoke delivery and context cues were related to puff duration. The pattern of psychophysiological reactivity was mixed and not easily interpreted. This experimental paradigm may be useful in the investigation of conditioning factors underlying addictive behaviors.