Center for Behavioral Decision Research

CBDR : Seminar Series : Seminar by Michael Sayette

A Cognitive and Affective Analysis of Cigarette Cravings

	presented by Michael Sayette (University of Pittsburgh)


	Thursday, October 1	link to paper
	12pm
	PH 223D	link to Speaker's Site

	Abstract:

	This talk describes research examining affective and cognitive processes associated with cigarette craving, with the aim of improving understanding of how craving may promote smoking and relapse. Cigarette cravings are viewed as affective in nature and, like other emotions, can be linked to subtle shifts in perception and decision-making that promote smoking. Studies are examined that reveal that while craving, smokers' attention shifts in a manner that increases the salience of smoking cues. These shifts may predict smoking relapse. Additional findings suggest that craving may lead smokers to systematically bias the quality or content of smoking-related information. Research also suggests that cravings can affect time perception, such that smokers may overestimate the strength and duration of their current cravings. Moreover, recent findings indicate that smokers while not craving often underpredict the motivational force of future cravings. Finally, I present data suggesting that smokers sometimes indulge their cravings, and thereby acquiesce in their failure to exercise self-control over their cigarette cravings.

	Host at CMU: Morewedge