PRETASK SMOKING AND SMOKING DURING A TASK - EFFECTS ON COGNITIVE PERFORMANCE, PUFFING BEHAVIOR, PHYSIOLOGICAL AND SUBJECTIVE PARAMETERS

Twenty female regular smokers participated in four experimental sessio ns, each of which involved performing a rapid information processing t ask (RIP) twice. According to a 2 x 2 cross-over design the subjects w ere allowed to either real or sham smoke a single habitual cigarette b etween the two RIP trials and to real or sham smoke ad libitum during the second RIP trial. RIP performance was significantly better when th e smokers were allowed to smoke during the task. On the other hand, th e improvement after pretask smoking failed to reach significance. The puffing intervals were similar for real and sham smoking during rest b ut significantly longer with real than with sham smoking during the ta sk. The increases in electrocortical and cardiovascular arousal as wel l as the subjective effects were similar for pretask and task smoking. After pretask smoking these effects vanished for the subsequent task period, whereas they were maintained but not further increased when pr etask smoking was followed by task smoking. It was concluded that ment al performance was increased but overarousal was avoided by accurate n icotine titration during the RIP task.