Cigarette smoking during anxiety-provoking and monotonous tasks.

Cigarette smokers were exposed to three conditions within a single session: stagefright anxiety, monotonous concentration, and a relaxation control. One cigarette was lit during the second 10-minute half of each condition, and smoking topography (number of puffs and cumulative volume smoked) was continuously recorded. Subjects smoked significantly more in the two task conditions than during relaxation, supporting the hypothesis that anxiety-provoking and attention-demanding situations elicit smoking. Younger subjects increased their smoking more than older subjects during stagefright , and females responded more than males to the concentration task.