Avoidance biases for vaping stimuli among college students with electronic-cigarette use.

Previous research has suggested that individuals who smoke demonstrate a behavioral tendency to approach rather than avoid smoking-related stimuli (i.e., approach bias). This study assessed whether 149 undergraduates with varying levels of e-cigarette use demonstrated an approach bias for vaping-related stimuli on an Approach-Avoidance Task (AAT). In contrast to our hypotheses, participants with e-cigarette use demonstrated a significant avoidance bias to vaping-related stimuli, and this effect appeared to be primarily driven by female e-cigarette users. Further, we found that more severe e-cigarette use was associated with numerous adverse outcomes, including reduced quality of life and increased vaping cravings, depressive symptoms, perceived stress, and cannabis use severity. Overall, our findings elucidate various negative impacts of e-cigarette use and suggest a potential role for sex differences in approach-avoidance tendencies toward vaping-related stimuli among young adults.

Conditioned place preferences for virtual alcohol cues.

This study examined whether a conditioned place preference (CPP) could be established for a virtual reality (VR) room that previously contained virtual alcohol stimuli. 298 undergraduates with varying levels of alcohol use completed six, three-minute conditioning sessions in which they were confined to one of two visually-distinct VR rooms: one of the VR rooms contained virtual alcohol cues (CS+) while the other VR room was neutral (CS-). Following conditioning, participants completed a three-minute test session during which they had unrestricted access to both VR rooms and neither room contained any alcohol-related cues. Although no virtual alcohol cues were present, participants with alcohol use (n = 248) spent significantly longer in CS+ relative to CS- compared to participants with alcohol non-use (n = 50) during the test session. This is the first study to show that a CPP can be established using virtual alcohol cues, in the absence of any actual alcohol administration. However, participants with alcohol use did not subjectively report enjoying CS+ more than CS- and explicitly chose CS- as their preferred room. Interestingly, these findings suggest that implicit and explicit measures of CPP may tap into distinct, separable processes and should be investigated further.

Avoidance tendencies toward cannabis stimuli in a college sample.

Individuals with addictions often exhibit approach bias, or the relatively automatic action tendency to approach rather than avoid addiction-related stimuli. The current study used a cannabis-Approach-Avoidance Task (AAT) to assess approach-avoidance tendencies toward cannabis stimuli among 211 undergraduate college students with varying levels of cannabis use. Frequency and severity of cannabis use was assessed using the Cannabis Use Disorder Identification Test - Short Form (CUDIT-R). The sample did not demonstrate a significant approach or avoidance bias toward cannabis stimuli; instead, participants were significantly slower to approach and avoid cannabis stimuli relative to neutral stimuli. Individuals with problematic cannabis use who met criteria for a possible cannabis use disorder (CUD) based on CUDIT-R criteria were significantly slower to avoid but not to approach cannabis stimuli compared to individuals with nonuse and non-problematic use. Moreover, increased frequency and severity of cannabis use was significantly associated with increased reaction times to avoid cannabis stimuli. Findings appear to differ from some previous studies examining approach-avoidance tendencies toward cannabis, suggesting that the role of cognitive biases in cannabis use is complex and should be further investigated.

Approach bias for erotic stimuli among heterosexual female college students who use pornography.

Repeated engagement in addictive behaviors may lead to relatively automatic action tendencies whereby individuals approach rather than avoid addictive stimuli. This study assessed whether an approach bias for erotic stimuli exists among heterosexual college-aged females who report using pornography. We tested 121 female undergraduates using an approach-avoidance task (AAT) employing both erotic and neutral stimuli, during which participants were instructed to push or pull a gaming joystick in response to image orientation. To simulate approach and avoidance movements, pulling the joystick enlarged the image and pushing shrunk the image. Severity of pornography use was assessed using the Brief Pornography Screener (BPS) and the Problematic Pornography Use Scale (PPUS). Participants demonstrated a significant approach bias of 24.81 ms for erotic stimuli as compared to neutral stimuli, and this approach bias significantly positively correlated with PPUS scores. Moreover, approach bias scores were significantly positively correlated with anhedonia (as assessed by the Snaith-Hamilton Pleasure Scale), indicating that the stronger the degree of approach for erotic stimuli, the more anhedonia that was observed. Anhedonia was not significantly associated with pornography use severity, however. Findings implicate both similarities and differences in problematic pornography use among female and male users. A limitation of the current study is that it assessed approach biases among only heterosexual females due to the erotic stimuli employed during the AAT. Future studies should examine approach biases among females of varying sexual orientations.

Approach bias for erotic stimuli in heterosexual male college students who use pornography.

BACKGROUND AND AIMS: Addicted individuals often demonstrate relatively automatic action tendencies in response to addiction-related stimuli, whereby they approach rather than avoid addictive stimuli. This study assessed whether an approach bias for erotic stimuli exists among heterosexual college-aged males who report using pornography. METHODS: We tested 72 male undergraduate students using an approach-avoidance task employing erotic stimuli, during which participants were instructed to push or pull a joystick in response to image orientation. To simulate approach and avoidance movements, pulling the joystick enlarged the image and pushing shrunk the image. Frequency and severity of pornography use was assessed using a Brief Pornography Screener and the Problematic Pornography Use Scale (PPUS). RESULTS: Participants demonstrated a significant approach bias for erotic stimuli as compared to neutral stimuli, and this approach bias significantly correlated with pornography-use measures. Moreover, individuals with problematic pornography use (as classified by the PPUS) showed more than double the approach bias than did non-problematic users. DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION: The observation of cognitive biases for erotic stimuli in individuals with problematic pornography use indicate similarities between behavioral and substance addictions.