Date of Award

8-1-1995

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Department

Psychology

Abstract

The present study investigated the effects nicotine and withdrawal from nicotine had on memory for prose passages. Previous research has indicated that nicotine either enhances, impairs, or has no effect on memory. The present study was an attempt to clarify some of these findings.Six groups of subjects were used, including one group who were not regular smokers, and five groups of regular smokers. All subjects were matched on verbal ability and trait arousal levels. The smoking subjects were matched on habitual nicotine consumption levels and length of smoking history and either smoked a nicotine-containing cigarette (0.1mg, 0.7mg, or 1.5mg) or abstained from smoking (2 hours or 12 hours) prior to the memory task, which consisted of recall of 4 expository prose passages. Heart rate and blood pressure were measured prior to smoking and throughout the study.The results indicated that smoking a nicotine cigarette led to increases in physiological arousal as measured by heart rate and blood pressure changes. Overall recall of the prose did not appear to be affected by withdrawal from nicotine or nicotine administration, or prior exposure to nicotine compared to no nicotine history (i.e. nonsmokers). However, those subjects who were light nicotine consumers (fewer than 14 cigarettes per day) and smoked the 0.1mg nicotine cigarette displayed better recall on the short length passages. Their recall was superior to those who were heavy nicotine consumers (more than 14 cigarettes per day) and received the same dose of nicotine (0.1mg), and those who were light nicotine consumers and had either no nicotine or a stronger nicotine cigarette.One hypothesis posited for these results is that dose of nicotine may interact with individual difference variables, situation-specific variables, and task variables to influence the effects on memory.

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