Ecological momentary assessment of delay discounting, reward valuation, and craving in very light cigarette users
Among very light smokers, steep delay discounting does not fuel craving—low discounters feel craving more.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Furer et al. (2024) tracked very light smokers in daily life. They used phone prompts to ask about craving, reward value, and delay discounting.
The team wanted to know if people who steeply discount the future would crave cigarettes more when trying to quit.
What they found
High delay discounting did not boost craving. In fact, people who discounted less showed stronger links between craving and smoking urges.
The result flips the usual story: steep discounters were not the ones who suffered most.
How this fits with other research
Gowen et al. (2013) showed pigeons switch from waiting to grabbing as delays grow. Haynes et al. (2022) saw the same reversals in rats. These lab studies set up the pattern the human data now test.
Nickerson et al. (2015) found that teaching rats to wait did not cut their alcohol drinking. That paper first hinted that delay skills and drug use can split apart. Furer et al. (2024) now show the split in people: discounting and craving do not march together.
Boudreau et al. (2015) lowered drug reward value in college students and saw later use drop. Their work says reward value matters more than delay style. The new smoking data echo this: reward value, not discount steepness, tied to craving.
Why it matters
If you run smoking cessation groups, do not assume the "impulsive" clients will crave more. Check reward value instead. Ask, "How good does a cigarette sound right now?" and shape that answer. You might skip delay-tolerance drills for very light smokers and focus on lowering the pull of the cigarette itself.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
Heightened delay discounting has been linked to adverse smoking cessation outcomes, including among light cigarette users. Few studies have evaluated delay discounting’s proposed mechanism, preference reversal (concurrent increases in valuation of/craving for desired objects), and none have done so in naturalistic settings. We examined how person-level delay discounting moderated the within-person association between cigarette valuation and craving among very light daily cigarette users who were financially incentivized to abstain. Forty participants completed a baseline delay discounting task and intermittent ratings of cigarette valuation and craving during the incentivized abstinence attempt. Subjects earned monetary rewards for abstinence on a descending schedule (e.g., $20 on days 1/2 and $2.50 on days 9/10). Consistent with preference reversals, there was a positive association between cigarette valuation and craving. This relationship was moderated by delay discounting (stronger amongst those with low discounting rates) and by monetary reinforcement amount (stronger on days with low reinforcement). Additionally, subjects were more likely to report stronger cravings on days with high monetary reinforcement, with this effect moderated by delay discounting (stronger among those with low discounting rates). Results suggest that heightened delay discounting may not confer risk for preference reversal among very light daily cigarette users attempting abstinence.
Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior, 2024 · doi:10.1002/jeab.4221