Schematic Processing of Cigarette Smoking and Drinking Information: Separate or Shared?

Abstract

The present study attempted to test the hypothesis that the correlation between cigarette smoking and alcohol use may be partly attributable to a cross-substance facilitation/inhibition effect in which schematic processes derived from personal experience with one substance (i.e., alcohol or cigarettes) facilitates or inhibits the processing of information associated with the other. In the present study, the schematic processing of smoking and drinking related words was assessed on basis three measures of schematic processing (i.e., endorsements/rejections of positive or negatively associated words, confidence ratings, and incidental recall rates) in a sample of 123 subjects, consisting of 27 heavy drinkers-nonsmokers, 31 light drinkers-smokers, 25 heavy drinkers-smokers and 40 light drinkers-nonsmokers. The findings suggest that under certain conditions, cross-substance schematic facilitation/inhibition does occur. Although the effect appears to be relatively modest, it is argued that it is sufficient to promote an increased level of vulnerability to biases in the information processing associated with a not-used substance. Additionally, a comparison of the findings from the present study with those from a much earlier study by Litz et al. [Litz, B.T., Payne, T.J. and Colletti, G. (<citeref rid="bib29">1987</citeref>). Schematic processing of smoking information by smokers and never-smokers. CognitiveTherapyandResearch, 11(3), 301-313] indicates that there may have been a shift in the schematic processing of both smokers and nonsmokers toward greater facilitation of negative smoking information. The implications and limitations of these and other findings are discussed.