The Effect of Nicotine Abstinence on Attention Types in Smokers

Abstract

This study aims to determine the differences in the attention levels of the deprivation status of the participants who are smoking and deprived by the researcher. In this research, there are 45 university students between the ages of 20-25 (53.3% female, 46.7% male) who were chosen by purposive sampling and continuing their undergraduate education at Aydın Adnan Menderes University. Fagerström Nicotine Dependence Test, Nicotine Stroop Task, d2 Attention Test and N-Back Task were used in the study. The participants of the study consisted of 2 groups who were changed by nicotine deprivation by the researcher. Participants were shown two lists of words, individually related to smoking and not related to smoking. Then, to determine selective and sustainable attention, the d2 attention test was measured. Finally, the n-Back Task was assigned to the participants to determine the level of divided attention. In the n-Back task, the participant was expected to pay attention to visual and auditory stimuli at the same time and press the keys determined by the researcher when he/she detected the same stimulus consecutively. Independent samples t-test was used to evaluate the data using the Last Factor Repeated ANOVA. In the findings of the research; it was found that the deprived participants had lower sustained attention performance than the smokers (p <.05). The findings were evaluated in the discussion section within the framework of the recent literature.

Keywords

• nicotine addiction
• nicotine abstinence
• attention types
• smoking bias
• n-back task