Environmental influences on craving and the physiological and cognitive effects of cigarette smoking

A novel environment was used to examine whether arbitrary environmental stimuli could come to elicit conditioned compensatory responses from cigarette smokers. It was hypothesised that: 1) Craving for cigarettes would be linked to environmental stimuli, and 2) these stimuli would elicit physiological and cognitive conditioned compensatory responses. Fourteen participants aged between 19 and 51 were exposed to 10 conditioning sessions in a novel environment followed by 2 experimental sessions in the same environment. Half of the participants smoked during the conditioning sessions while the other half mock smoked. During the two experimental sessions, the participants smoked in one session and mock smoked in the other. The participants' heart rate, cognitive and craving responses were recorded.