Operant demand for cigarettes varies by unit of purchase: Comparing purchasing of packs and individual cigarettes

The operant demand cigarette purchase task conventionally prompts participants to report imagined purchases in units of single cigarettes. Although this purchasing modality diverges from the units deployed in real purchasing scenarios (i.e., packs of 20), no research has examined how simulated purchasing of the more ecologically valid unit of cigarette packs maps onto single cigarette purchasing metrics. A sample of 212 participants in this study reported hypothetical cigarette purchases across three iterations of the cigarette purchase task. Two of these collected responses in a binary format-would or would not purchase-at yoked unit prices, where tasks were distinguished as purchases of single cigarettes or packs of cigarettes. This binary framework permitted a simplified probabilistic description of purchasing that maintained a consistent timeframe. Participants also completed the standard cigarette purchase task, reporting the quantity of single cigarettes they would purchase and consume at each unit price. Purchasing breakpoint, or the highest price at which participants reported purchasing cigarettes, was broadly consistent across these tasks, weakly so when comparing purchases made on the binary tasks (r = .183). Tests of equivalence suggested that there were meaningful differences between breakpoint values reported on the single cigarette binary task and the per pack binary task, t(211) = -5.85, p < .001, and between breakpoint values reported on the standard purchase task and the per pack binary task, t(211) = 11.49, p < .001. Results suggest more research is needed to determine what environmental factors or imposed constraints are practically influencing reported cigarette valuation. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved).