Análisis del procesamiento atencional de la información relacionada con el tabaco y la salud mediante una tarea stroop modificada

Abstract

Aims: To examine if compulsory health warnings are getting smokers' attention and to analyse if this group shows an attentional bias towards smoking related words. Method: A sample of smokers, former smokers and non-smokers were administered a modified Stroop task consisting in tobacco-related-words, health-related-words and neutral-words. A possible priming effect is manipulated. Results: It was observed that the health-warning-words do not attract smokers' attention more than the neutral-words. Contrary to what has been described by other authors, our study does not find an increasing amount of attention towards smoking-related-cues in smokers. However, the designed Stroop tobacco task shows predictive power of smokers' performance. Conclusions: Words related to tobacco and health do not have a significant attentional impact on our sample of smokers. The tobacco Stroop task could be useful as cognitive marker of the success of smoking cessation treatment or as predictor of the risk of smoking relapse.