One explanation for these disparate results is that there could be both pharmacological and nonpharmacological effects on affect and craving, effects that are dependent on measurement modality. “Hot” processing, which is conceptualized as a reflexive response to classical conditioning (Metcalfe & Mischel, 1999) that suppresses regions of the brain associated with reasoning (Goel & Dolan, 2003), has been postulated to be associated with withdrawal-induced negative affect (Baker, Piper, McCarthy, Majeskie, & Fiore, 2004). On the other hand, “cold” processing involves cognitive mediation of an emotional response and is thus more deliberative. Smoking abstinence might lead to increased negative affect compared to relapse, due to withdrawal-induced hot processing, but the self-report of negative affect might more clearly register the negative affect resulting from cognitively mediated cold processing in relapsers. Examples of cognitively mediated evaluations include the Abstinence Violation Effect, which postulates that smokers may experience negative affect such as guilt following relapse, particularly if the slip is attributed to stable internal rather than to situational determinants (Curry, Marlatt, & Gordon, 1987; Marlatt, 1985). Thus, both relapsers and abstainers might experience negative
