Facilitation of memory by post-trial administration of nicotine: evidence for an attentional explanation.
In human studies, reported performance improvements with post-trial administration of nicotine have all involved associative learning (Mangan and Golding 1983; Colrain et al. 1992; Warburton et al. 1992). In this study, post-trial nicotine, obtained through smoking a cigarette, improved free recall of lists of unrelated words under conditions which limited the opportunity for associative learning. However, the nicotine-induced advantage was not observed when volunteers were required to complete a secondary (attention) task during the post-trial period in which they smoked. The results suggest that post-trial effects depend on the opportunity for stimulus processing after input, and that nicotine improves performance by increasing the attentional resources available for such strategic processing.
Rusted
J M
JM
Laboratory of Experimental Psychology, University of Sussex, Falmer, Brighton, UK.
Warburton
D M
DM
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001288:Attention / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008568:Memory / Q000187:drug effects* / Q000502:physiology; D011939:Mental Recall / Q000502:physiology; D009538:Nicotine / Q000008:administration & dosage / Q000494:pharmacology*; D012907:Smoking / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000523:psychology; D013647:Task Performance and Analysis; D013997:Time Factors
D009538:Nicotine