Effects of smoking dependence level on attentional bias in smokers

Abstract

There is uncertainty regarding whether the degree of nicotine dependence directly impacts the increase or decrease of attentional biases towards smoking-related cues. Their relationship remains unclear. Therefore, we compared the attentional bias among smokers with varying levels of dependence. We conducted the study with 114 smokers, utilizing a Modified Stroop Paradigm and Dot Probe Tasks to assess attentional biases toward both smoking-related and neutral cues. The objective was to compare attention bias levels among individuals with varying degrees of dependence. At various levels of nicotine dependence -whether mild, moderate, or severe- individuals demonstrated a consistent attentional bias towards smoking-related cues, suggesting no significant distinction between these groups. The results of the study show that there was no discernable correlation between attentional bias concerning smoking-related stimuli and the level of nicotine dependency. The results are discussed together with the existing studies.

Keywords

• Attentional bias
• nicotine dependence
• addiction
• dot probe tasks

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