Cigarette smoking and cognitive performance in healthy Swedish adults.
BACKGROUND
The relationship between cigarette smoking and cognitive function was examined in healthy Swedish adults who were participants in the Betula Prospective Cohort Study of Aging, Memory, and Health.


METHODS
The data are from those individuals in the Betula study who were self-reported continuous smokers contrasted to those who reported never smoking cigarettes.


METHODS
The dependent variables were cognitive tasks that varied with respect to difficulty and the demand they placed on processing resources.


RESULTS
Current smokers performed more poorly than never smokers on the more cognitively demanding tasks; namely, Block Design and free recall.


CONCLUSIONS
The findings were interpreted in the light of the assumption that cigarette smoking may exert its greatest deleterious effect on those cognitive tasks that place the heaviest demands on processing resources.
Hill
Robert D
RD
Educational Psychology, University of Utah, 1705 East Campus Center Drive RM 327, Salt Lake City, UT 84112-9255, USA. bhill@ed.utah.edu
Nilsson
Lars-Göran
LG
Nyberg
Lars
L
Bäckman
Lars
L
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D003071:Cognition / Q000187:drug effects*; D015331:Cohort Studies; D006801:Humans; D008570:Memory, Short-Term / Q000187:drug effects*; D008875:Middle Aged; D012907:Smoking / Q000009:adverse effects*; D013548:Sweden