explanations for nicotine addiction: learning theory

• Learning theory?

  A behaviourist explanation based on the mechanisms of classical and operant conditioning, such as positive and negative reinforcement.
• Cue reactivity ?

  Cravings and arousal can be triggered in, for instance, nicotine addicts when they encounter cues related to the pleasurable effects of smoking. Examples of such cues include the social situations in which they have smoked previously.
• strength - research support

  support for the learning approach from animal studies. substantial body of research with non-human animals confirming the role of operant conditioning in nicotine addiction. study by Levin et al. (2010) rats could lick two water spouts. Licking one of them triggered dose of nicotine, but licking other led to no reward. rats licked the nicotine-linked waterspout more often. number of licks increased substantially over 24 sessions. suggests that effects of nicotine positively reinforce self-administration in rats, implying there is a similar mechanism in humans.
• another strength - support for cue reactivity

  support from research with humans for the effects of cues. Carter and Tiffany (1999) did a meta-analysis of 41 studies into cue reactivity. studies presented dependent and non-dependent smokers with images of smoking-related cues. Self-reported desire (craving) was measured along with indicators of physiological arousal. Dependent smokers reacted most strongly to the cues, shows that dependent smokers learn secondary associations between smoking-related stimuli and pleasurable effects of smoking.