Picture this: Smoking cues as conditional elicitors of compensatory responses in smokers

The current study sought to extend previous research on conditional compensatory responses and illicit drugs to smoking and respondent conditioning by exposing ten adult smokers and nonsmokers to smoking and non-smoking related imagery. Pre- and post-slide show carbon monoxide (CO) levels were taken as the main measure of compensatory actions. As supplementary measures, heart rate and blood pressure readings were also obtained. Results demonstrated that the measures of CO obtained from smokers were lower following a visual presentation of smoking related images as compared to a presentation of non-smoking related images. This drop in CO levels was not evident (a) in nonsmoking participants, nor (b) in two control subjects whom provided extended CO measures in the absence of visual imagery. These data suggest the continued investigation of respondent aspects in smoking behavior is necessary in order to obtain a global picture of the physiological aspects of smoking behavior