Episodic Future Thinking, Loss Aversion and Cigarette Smoking

Not Applicable

Not yet recruiting

• Conditions: Tobacco Smoking
• Interventions: Behavioral: Episodic Future Thinking; Behavioral: Control Episodic Thinking

• Registration Number: NCT05110612
• Lead Sponsor: University of Vermont

Brief Summary

Controlled laboratory experiment to examine whether Episodic Future Thinking influences loss aversion and cigarette smoking among adult individuals who currently smoke cigarettes daily.

Detailed Description

Specific Aim 1: Examine in a controlled laboratory study using a randomized parallel-group design whether an intervention that increases LA among 138 current adult daily cigarette smokers (≥21 years; 50% male/50% female) also (1) decreases cigarette smoking and (2) can improve with practice and (3) sustain effectiveness at a follow-up assessment. Potential influence of DD, other self-control, and potential sociodemographic confounders will be accounted for in all analyses.

Hypothesis 1.1: EFT will increase LA and reduce cigarette smoking (i.e., smoking rate). (Primary) Hypothesis 1.2: Changes in LA will mediate the effect of EFT on cigarette smoking independent of changes in DD, and relevant self-control related factors. (Primary) Hypothesis 1.3: EFT effects will be greater following Extended compared to Brief training. (Secondary) Hypothesis 1.4: Changes in LA and smoking rate sustained at follow up will be mediated by EFT habit learning indexed by the perceived automaticity of cue generation with extended EFT practice. (Exploratory)

Study Timeline

• Study First Submitted: 2021-10-20
• Study First Submitted QC: 2021-10-26
• Study First Posted: 2021-11-08
• Status Verified: 2023-02
• Last Update Submitted: 2023-02-25
• Last Update Posted: 2023-02-28
• Study Start: 2024-04-01
• Primary Completion: 2028-07-31
• Study Completion: 2028-07-31

Recruitment & Eligibility

• Status: NOT_YET_RECRUITING
• Sex: All
• Target Recruitment: 192

Inclusion Criteria

Not provided

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Exclusion Criteria

Not provided

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Study & Design

• Study Type: INTERVENTIONAL
• Study Design: PARALLEL

Arm && Interventions

Group	Intervention	Description
Brief Episodic Future Thinking	Episodic Future Thinking	Participants will receive Episodic Future Thinking practice for 2 sessions.
Extended Episodic Future Thinking	Episodic Future Thinking	Participants will receive Episodic Future Thinking practice for 8 sessions.
Control	Control Episodic Thinking	Participants will receive sham Episodic Recent Thinking intervention.

Primary Outcome Measures

Name	Time	Method
Loss aversion	30 days	Loss aversion will be measured with a gamble task developed by Tom et al. (2007). Participants will choose whether to accept or reject each of a series of hypothetical lotteries offering a 50-50 chance of a monetary loss and a monetary gain. Participants will indicate their decision to play a lottery by clicking on accept or reject buttons (strongly accept, accept, reject, strongly reject) located on the screen below the amounts (Figure 2). The task will consist of a series of 49 trials presenting each combination of 7 possible gains (+$2, +$12, +$22, +$32, +$42, +$52, and +$62) and 7 possible losses (-$1, -$6, -$11, -$16, -$21, -$26, and -$31). Combinations of gains and losses will be presented in random order.
Cigarette self-administration	30 days	All participants will complete a 60-min self-administration task, in which they can earn single cigarette puffs for every 10 clicks on a moving circle on a computer screen. After completing each response requirement, participants will self-administer 1 cigarette puff. Target cigarette puff volume will be standardized at approximately 70 mL and participants will be instructed to light a cigarette without inhaling, place it in a cigarette holder connected to the pressure sensor, and inhale from the cigarette while estimated puff volume is displayed on the computer screen in real time. The displayed puff volume will turn from white to red at 60 ml and signal the approximate time participants should stop inhaling to reach 70 ml. Participants will have practiced this procedure prior to the task. Participants will be instructed that they can smoke as much or as little as they want during the task.

Secondary Outcome Measures

Name	Time	Method
Delay discounting	30 days	Delay discounting will be measured with a standard adjusting-amount task. This task used to measure intervention effects on delay discounting (e.g., Stein et al., 2016). At each of five delays, participants will choose between two different hypothetical amounts: $1,000.00 available after a delay or a smaller amount of money available immediately. The smaller amount will be titrated across six consecutive trials until reaching a point of subjective equality between choice options. Delays will be presented in random order. The value of the smaller amount at indifference indexes the discounted value of the larger option at each delay. This titration process will repeat at each of five delays: 1 day, 1 week, 1 month, 3 months, and 1 year.