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Plain cigarette packs do not exert P avlovian to instrumental transfer of control over tobacco‐seeking
Author(s) -
Hogarth Lee,
Maynard Olivia M.,
Munafò Marcus R.
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
addiction
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.424
H-Index - 193
eISSN - 1360-0443
pISSN - 0965-2140
DOI - 10.1111/add.12756
Subject(s) - tobacco use , priming (agriculture) , medicine , tobacco control , cigarette smoking , psychology , audiology , environmental health , horticulture , biology , population , public health , germination , nursing
Aims To gain insight into the potential impact of plain tobacco packaging policy, two experiments were undertaken to test whether ‘prototype’ plain compared with branded UK cigarette pack stimuli would differentially elicit instrumental tobacco‐seeking in a nominal P avlovian to instrumental transfer ( PIT ) procedure. Design, Setting and Participants Two experiments were undertaken at the U niversity of B ristol UK , with a convenience sample of adult smokers (experiment 1, n = 23, experiment 2, n = 121). Measurement In both experiments, smokers were trained on a concurrent choice procedure in which two responses earned points for cigarettes and chocolate, respectively, before images of branded and plain packs were tested for capacity to elicit the tobacco‐seeking response in extinction. The primary outcome was percentage choice of the tobacco‐ over the chocolate‐seeking response in plain pack, branded pack and no‐stimulus conditions. Findings Both experiments found that branded packs primed a greater percentage of tobacco‐seeking (overall mean = 62%) than plain packs (overall mean = 53%) and the no‐stimulus condition (overall mean = 52%; P s ≤ 0.01, ŋ p 2 s ≥ 0.16), and that there was no difference in percentage tobacco‐seeking between plain packs and the no‐stimulus condition ( P s ≥ 0.17, ŋ p 2 s ≤ 0.04). Plain tobacco packs showed an overall 9% reduction in the priming of a tobacco choice response compared to branded tobacco packs. Conclusions Plain packaging may reduce smoking in current smokers by degrading cue‐elicited tobacco‐seeking.