The role of explicit cognition in addiction: Development of the mental representations scale

Abstract

We argue that explicit cognitions in the form of mental representations (MR), in addition to habits, constitute an important aspect of smoking. Two studies were performed with the aim of developing a measure of MR in the context of smoking behaviour. MRs refer to explicit and conscious cognitive processes which involve the strength of thoughts, planning, anticipation and self-awareness regarding future actions. In Study 1 we generated a pool of items assumed to assess smokers’ MRs, and explored the factor structure and internal consistency of the MR scale. In Study 2 we further expanded the theoretical aspects of the scale, and we explored the psychometric properties of the MR scale in terms of temporal stability and convergent and discriminant validity. The results indicated that these properties were satisfactory, thus encouraging the further use of the MR scale in the domain of addictive behaviours. Implications of the results are discussed.