Effects of Smoking and Smoking Cues on Prospective Memory

Pakyürek, Gün; Cangöz-Tavat, Banu · 2025 · Crossref

DOI: 10.5152/addicta.2025.23120

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Summary

This study investigated the impact of smoking status and smoking-related cues on prospective memory (PM), defined as the ability to remember future intentions. The research was motivated by the need to understand cognitive deficits in smokers and the role of cue reactivity in addiction, where environmental stimuli associated with nicotine may disrupt cognitive processes. The authors aimed to determine if smokers perform worse on PM tasks than non-smokers, if smoking cues further impair performance, and to validate the Turkish adaptation of the Virtual Week (VW) task as a reliable measurement tool. The study employed a quasi-experimental design with 120 young adult participants (60 smokers, 60 non-smokers). Participants completed the VW task, a computerized simulation involving 30 PM tasks across three virtual days, including event-based, time-based, and time-check tasks. The experimental design was a 2 (Smoking Status) × 3 (Cue Type: smoking-related, unrelated, or no cue) factorial ANOVA. Cue manipulation involved participants handling smoking paraphernalia (cigarettes, lighter) or neutral objects (pencils) before each virtual day. Dependent variables were the accuracy of PM task responses and task completion duration. Data were analyzed using IBM SPSS, with reliability assessed via Cronbach’s alpha and Spearman-Brown coefficients. Results indicated that smokers had significantly lower accuracy on PM tasks compared to non-smokers (M = .70 vs. M = .76, p = .03). Smokers also performed significantly worse on time-check tasks, which require precise time estimation. While smokers completed the VW task marginally faster than non-smokers (p = .06), this speed came at the cost of accuracy. Contrary to hypotheses regarding cue reactivity, the type of cue (smoking-related vs. unrelated) had no statistically significant main effect or interaction effect on PM performance or completion time. However, a marginally significant difference was observed in the smoking-related cue condition, where smokers performed worse than non-smokers (p = .06). The Turkish VW demonstrated acceptable reliability, with Cronbach’s alpha values of .76 for smokers and .67 for non-smokers. The findings confirm that smoking detrimentally affects prospective memory, particularly in tasks requiring time estimation, aligning with broader literature on substance use and cognitive impairment. The lack of significant cue effects suggests that in vivo smoking cues may not substantially disrupt PM in young, less dependent smokers, though they may exacerbate deficits in highly dependent individuals. The study supports the validity of the Turkish VW for assessing PM in this demographic. These results imply that cognitive deficits in smokers may contribute to difficulties in maintaining cessation intentions, highlighting the importance of addressing cognitive load and cue exposure in addiction treatment models.

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• prospective memory interruptions