A variety of factors could account for the inconsistent relationship between craving and affect. First, self-report may not be the most sensitive measure of negative affect and craving. The negative affect (Baker et al., 2004) and craving (Berridge & Robinson, 1995) that result from nicotine withdrawal and/or cue elicitation may operate preconsciously, and self-report measures, which require extensive cognitive processing, may not be sensitive to these subtle changes. Self-report may also be influenced by the expectancy that smoking deprivation leads to increased negative mood and craving. Additionally, it is likely that craving and the cues that prompt craving coactivate appetitive and aversive motivation (Breiner, Stritzke, & Lang, 1999). For instance, a smoker early in the quitting process may have previously associated smoking cues with the pleasures of smoking, but now views such cues as something to be avoided. Such motivational conflict and ambivalence have been reported among food cravers (Rogers & Smit, 2000). Using a multimodal measurement approach, with both self-report and psychophysiology, may allow for a more sophisticated analysis of these subtle and potentially conflicting motivation states, while avoiding the potential biases inherent to the measurement of cognitively mediated self-reported affect (Waldron, 1983).
