The effects of cigarettes of varying yield on rapid information processing performance

The purpose of this study was to determine the effects of four cigarettes having a range of covarying nicotine and "tar" yields on the performance of a rapid information processing task. Twenty five smokers were tested on different days with each of the cigarettes and in a non-smoking control condition. The order of testing was counterbalanced over days using a 5 x 5 Latin Square Design. Not only did smoking help to prevent the decrease in speed and accuracy which occurred over time in the non-smoking conditions, but it actually improved performance over baseline levels. Furthermore, the greatest improvements were found with the higher nicotine yielding cigarettes. These objectively measured effects of the cigarettes on performance matched the subjective evaluations of the effects of the cigarettes outside the laboratory, and are discussed in relation to other questionnaire studies and a survey of smoking at work.