Episodic Future Thinking, Loss Aversion and Cigarette Smoking

NCT05110612 | Withdrawn

• 1 other identifier: FP00002058
• Study Type: interventional
• Target: N/A
• Locations: 0 countries
• Sites: N/A

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.

Conditions

Tobacco Smoking

Outcome Measures

Primary Outcomes (2)

• Loss aversion

  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.

  30 days

• Cigarette self-administration

  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.

  30 days

Secondary Outcomes (1)

• Delay discounting

  30 days

Study Arms (3)

Extended Episodic Future Thinking

EXPERIMENTAL

Participants will receive Episodic Future Thinking practice for 8 sessions.

Behavioral: Episodic Future Thinking

Brief Episodic Future Thinking

EXPERIMENTAL

Participants will receive Episodic Future Thinking practice for 2 sessions.

Behavioral: Episodic Future Thinking

Control

SHAM COMPARATOR

Participants will receive sham Episodic Recent Thinking intervention.

Behavioral: Control Episodic Thinking

Interventions

Episodic Future Thinking BEHAVIORAL

Episodic Future Thinking involves generating positive, autobiographical events that could realistically occur following each of five delays in the subsequent DD task: 1 day, 1 week, 1 month, 3 months, and 1 year. Participants will be told to not include events related specifically to smoking. Using a five-point Likert scale, participants will rate each event according to four dimensions: vividness, enjoyment, importance, and excitement. The event rated the most vivid at each time frame will be chosen for use in subsequent behavioral testing (ties will be settled randomly). Participants will then be recorded reciting a self-created two or three-sentence summary of each event. These recordings will serve as audio cues. Participants will also create abbreviated versions of each description to serve as text cues.

Brief Episodic Future Thinking; Extended Episodic Future Thinking

Control Episodic Thinking BEHAVIORAL

Control Episodic Thinking will report three real, positive events that occurred earlier in the session while playing mobile video games. Participants will be told to not include events related specifically to smoking. Using a five-point Likert scale, participants will rate each event according to four dimensions: vividness, enjoyment, importance, and excitement. The event rated the most vivid at each time frame will be chosen for use in subsequent behavioral testing (ties will be settled randomly). Participants will then be recorded reciting a self-created two or three-sentence summary of each event. These recordings will serve as audio cues. Participants will also create abbreviated versions of each description to serve as text cues.

Control

Eligibility Criteria

• Age: 21 Years+
• Sex: all
• Healthy Volunteers: Yes
• Age Groups: Adult (18-64), Older Adult (65+)

You may not qualify if:

• Adult ≥ age 21 years.
• Able to provide informed, written consent.
• Smoke an average of at least five (5) cigarettes per day for at least one year.
• Breath CO levels \> 8 ppm. If breath CO is less than 8 ppm, we will administer a urine test (NicAlert Strip) and include if result is greater than 2.
• Desire to quit smoking, but not actively trying to quit or currently taking medications to aid smoking cessation (e.g, varenicline, bupropion).
• US citizen or a permanent resident alien with a green card
• Comfortable reading and writing in English
• Currently seeking treatment for smoking cessation.
• Use of tobacco products other than traditional combusted cigarettes on more than 9 of the previous 30 days
• Positive urine toxicological screen for illicit drug use (i.e., amphetamine, methamphetamine, cocaine, barbiturates, benzodiazepines, buprenorphine, opiates, methadone, oxycodone, phencyclidine).
• d) Breath alcohol level (BAL) at \<.01 (Alco-Sensor IV, Intoximeter, Inc., St Louis, MO) at intake.
• a. Participants failing the toxicological screen will be allowed to re-screened for the study. These participants will complete the informed consent process an additional time before being re-screened.
• e) Recent or current psychiatric episode to be determined with DSM-V criteria. f) Non-correctable vision or hearing impairments. g) Inability to independently read and comprehend written materials (consent form, other study materials and measures).
• h) Currently pregnant (to be determined with a pregnancy test) or trying to become pregnant.
• i) Currently breastfeeding. j) Exclusive use of "roll your own" cigarettes.

Sponsors & Collaborators

• University of Vermont: lead

Related Publications (2)

• Stein JS, Wilson AG, Koffarnus MN, Daniel TO, Epstein LH, Bickel WK. Unstuck in time: episodic future thinking reduces delay discounting and cigarette smoking. Psychopharmacology (Berl). 2016 Oct;233(21-22):3771-3778. doi: 10.1007/s00213-016-4410-y. Epub 2016 Aug 23.

  PMID: 27553824 BACKGROUND

• Tom SM, Fox CR, Trepel C, Poldrack RA. The neural basis of loss aversion in decision-making under risk. Science. 2007 Jan 26;315(5811):515-8. doi: 10.1126/science.1134239.

  PMID: 17255512 BACKGROUND

MeSH Terms

Conditions

Tobacco Smoking

Condition Hierarchy (Ancestors)

Smoking; Behavior; Tobacco Use

Study Officials

• ERIC A THRAILKILL, PHD

  University of Vermont

  PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR

Study Design

• Study Type: interventional
• Phase: not applicable
• Allocation: RANDOMIZED
• Masking: SINGLE
• Who Masked: PARTICIPANT
• Purpose: BASIC SCIENCE
• Intervention Model: PARALLEL
• Sponsor Type: OTHER
• Responsible Party: PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR
• PI Title: Research Assistant Professor

Model Details: Randomized parallel group design

Study Record Dates

• First Submitted: October 20, 2021
• First Posted: November 8, 2021
• Study Start (Estimated): January 1, 2050
• Primary Completion (Estimated): January 1, 2051
• Study Completion (Estimated): January 2, 2051
• Last Updated: May 4, 2026

Record last verified: 2026-04

Data Sharing

• IPD Sharing: Will share
• Shared Documents: STUDY PROTOCOL
• Time Frame: Materials will be made available on a perpetual OSF repository after notice of publication.
• Access Criteria: Open access