Thought-stopping, Pocket Timers, and their Combination, in the Modification of Smoking Behaviour

One hundred and four woken wishing to reduce their cigarette smoking were randomly allocated to the following Join experimental conditions: thought‐slapping, pocket timer, a combination of thought‐stopping and packet timer, and a non‐treated control group. Treatment was of 12 weeks duration. At the one, three and six months follow‐ups, smoking rates were reassured. The difference between the thought‐stopping and control group wax not statistically significant during treatment nor during follow‐up. On the other hand, the difference between the pocket timer and control group was highly significant from the second week of treatment until the twelfth: it remained significant at the three‐month follow‐up, but was no longer so at six months. Finally, the combined effect of thought‐stopping and pocket timer was not only less effective than the packet timer alone, but thought stopping appeared to interfere with the effect at the timer.