Effects of cigarette smoking on lexical decision-making

10 habitual smokers, aged 19-25 yr., were randomly assigned to smoke either a very low nicotine "Placebo" cigarette (.05-mg nicotine delivery as estim ated by the FTC method) or a Nicotine cigarette (.7-mg estimated nicotine d elivery). Each participant was asked to abstain from smoking for 4 to 7 hr. prior to testing. Af ter completing a presmoking test of lexical decision- making, participants smoked either a Nicotine or Placebo cigarette and were then retested for reaction times and accuracy on the lexical decision rest . When presented the most difficult lexical decisions, participants respond ed significantly faster after smoking a Nicotine cigarette than they did be fore smoking; smoking a Placebo cigarette did nor affect reaction times. Re sponse accuracy was unaffected by smoking either kind of cigarette. These r esults suggest that smoking a nicotine cigarette may improve attention or m emory retrieval after several hours of smoking abstinence.