Evaluation of visual attentional biases in a sample of university smokers

The tobacco consumption continues being a worrying problem due to the negative consequences in the health. At presents, strategies of prevention based on the persuasion across clue pictures are used, which need to attract the attention of the smoker in order that they are effective. Nevertheless, the number of experimental studies in Spain on attentional biases in smokers is very limited. For it, in this study the aim was to verify the presence of visual attentional biases using the dot probe task in university smokers, stage where the smoking habit is consolidated. The sample was constituted by 337 students of the University of Huelva, with ages between 17 and 30 years. The participation was voluntary and the participants signed an informed assent. 135 subjects presented consumption history, which were distributed, according to classification of the WHO, in daily smokers, occasional smokers and former smokers. A experimental Ex post facto prospective design was used. The results showed that the smokers group was significantly later time to respond to the clue located in the same place that the tobacco picture than the group of not smokers. This shows that the smokers presented more difficulty to disconnect the attention towards smoking cues than not smokers.