title: Attentional bias for smoking-related information in pregnant women: relationships with smoking experience, smoking attitudes and perceived harm to foetus.
abstract: According to recent models of drug dependence, attentional bias for drug cues provides an index of vulnerability to drug-taking and relapse. The present study examined attentional bias for smoking-related information in pregnant women and its relationship with smoking experience and attitudes. Participants were 71 pregnant women (35 without smoking experience; 36 with experience of smoking, of whom 16 reported currently smoking). Attentional bias was assessed from the interference index of smoking-related words on a modified Stroop task. The attentional bias for smoking cues was positively associated with smoking experience, and with more favourable general attitudes to smoking (i.e. incentive-related bias). The bias was also greater in women who perceived greater harm of passive smoking to their foetus (i.e. threat-related bias), which was independent of smoking experience. Results indicate that attentional bias for smoking-related cues is independently associated with both incentive-related (reward) and threat-related (aversive) evaluations of cigarette smoking in pregnant women. This work highlights the need for longitudinal research to investigate whether the attentional bias provides a cognitive index of vulnerability for persistent smoking behaviour both during and after pregnancy.
authors.affiliation: Psychology, University of Southampton, Highfield, Southampton SO17 1BJ, UK.
authors.forename: Rebecca
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Greenaway
authors.forename: Karin
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Mogg
authors.forename: Brendan P
authors.initials: BP
authors.lastname: Bradley
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001245:Association Learning; D001288:Attention; D001294:Attitude to Health; D003463:Cues; D005260:Female; D005315:Fetal Diseases / Q000523:psychology; D006801:Humans; D010465:Perception; D011247:Pregnancy; D012907:Smoking / Q000523:psychology*; D057190:Stroop Test