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Smoking and human information processing.
1Department of Psychology, University of Edinburgh, UK.
Psychopharmacology
|January 1, 1989
Summary
Smoking appears to enhance specific cognitive functions, particularly those involving motor responses. This study found improvements in tasks like rapid visual information processing and digit symbol substitution after smoking.
Area of Science:
- Cognitive Neuroscience
- Psychopharmacology
Background:
- Existing research suggests smoking positively impacts human information processing.
- The precise cognitive stages affected by smoking require further elucidation.
Purpose of the Study:
- To identify specific stages of information processing that are enhanced by cigarette smoking.
- To investigate the relationship between smoking and cognitive task performance.
Main Methods:
- A repeated measures design was employed with twelve regular smokers.
- Cognitive performance was assessed using three tasks: rapid visual information processing (RVIP), digit symbol substitution (DSST), and inspection time (IT).
- Performance parameters were selected to index different stages of information processing.
Main Results:
- Smoking significantly improved response time in the RVIP task (P < 0.025).
- DSST performance also showed improvement after smoking (P < 0.1).
- Improvements were observed only in measures involving a motor component.
Conclusions:
- The findings indicate that smoking enhances late, response-related stages of information processing.
- Central cholinergic pathways are suggested to play a role in these smoking-induced improvements.