Much research has shown that individuals exhibit an attentional bias to sti
muli related to their current concerns or pathologies. Using the emotional
Stroop task, we investigated attentional bias in smokers. Ninety-six smoker
s either abstained from smoking for 24 hr or smoked normally before color-n
aming smoking-related and neutral words. Both a blocked format (smoking and
neutral words presented in separate blocks) and an unblocked format (smoki
ng and neutral words presented in a mixed random sequence) were used. In th
e blocked format, abstinence caused an attentional bias to smoking-related
stimuli, and the degree of attentional bias predicted the latency to the fi
rst cigarette of the morning. However, different results were obtained from
the unblocked version of the task. We conclude that the emotional Stroop t
ask is a useful tool to measure attentional bias in smokers and could be us
ed in cessation studies.