An investigation of implicit and explicit 'liking' and 'wanting' processes in nicotine addiction

Abstract

Research indicates that drug related stimuli acquire the ability to elicit attention and approach biases in heavily dependent drug users. Incentive motivation models of addiction propose that excessive attribution o f incentive salience manifests in a form of pathological 'wanting', which is responsible for drug related stimuli grabbing the drug users attention and motivating automatic approach behaviours. Conversely, reinforcement models of addiction state that drug cues acquire an affective valence association ('liking') that is based on the drug users history of drug reinforcement.