Traditional gauges of craving have been based primarily forward the concept of classical conditioning.

Traditional gauges of craving have been based primarily forward the concept of classical conditioning. In new years, however, researchers increasingly have introduced cognitive universals such as memory, expectancies, interpretation, and automatic behavior, into their conceptualizations of craving. These efforts have culminated in the progressive growth of four cognitive models of craving: cognitive labeling, consequence expectancy, dual-affect, and cognitive processing. The cognitive processing prototype posits that although many alcohol use behaviors have become automatized processe in the course of an alcoholic's drinking career, craving is a nonautomatic proces that requires mental effort and is limited according to a person's cognitive capacity. This type also implies that alcohol use and alcohol-seeking behavior can come into one's head in the absence of craving. In addition to introducing various fresh concepts and models into craving research, the cognitive sciences also present well-established methodologies for testing these examples and analyz ing craving processe key-note WORDS: AOD (alcohol and other drug) craving; scientific model; cognition; research course and evaluation; conditioning; expectancy; emotion; memory; AOD use behavior; literature review

Imagine that you are an alcoholic trying to quit drinking. You have not had a drink in a month however during the past several days, you have study about alcohol constantly. These ponderings occupy your mind, making it nearly impossible to concentrate upon anything else. Everything around you present the appearances to invoke memories of to what degree pleasant and satisfying drinking can be. You have wrestl with the idea of having a drink, on the contrary you have decided to wait at least a little longer Today, however, after leaving work, you find yourself somewhat mindlessly driving by dint of your favorite bar. You cannot help still notice the front door of the bar propp unclose seeming to beckon you inside. You chance over to the curb, park your car, and find yourself standing at the door. As you contemplate through the doorway, it is all to such a degree familiar: The bar stools, the television flickering in the corner, and flat the smell of stale cigarette reek are comfortable and inviting. Your heart races and your hands sweat; you realize that this is craving at its worst. You are drawn inexorably into the bar. There is no way you can fight it any longer; you must have a drink.

Although fictional, this situation is not farfetched. In fact, many alcoholics will describe in vivid derail similar stories about craving and relapse (Ludwig 1988) The conventional explanation for this scenario, based upon classical conditioning models, is relatively straightforward: across along history of drinking, stimuli and affairs routinely paired with alcohol consumption (eg the sight of a bar) become conditioned stimuli-- that is, they induce the same answers that are produced by alcohol itself. These conditioned stimuli activate conditioned motivational states [1] that about craving experiences, physiological reactions, and alcohol-seeking behaviors. Thus, all the circumstances described in the opening paragraph could be viewed as the concatenations of classical conditioning mechanisms (for a review of the classical conditioning pattern see sidebar, p. 216, and Tiffany 1995a).

Numerous constitutings of the scenario described previously, however, advance beyond simple conditioning processes. For example, the fictional display includes descriptions of alcohol-specific memories, positive expectancies about alcohol use, difficulties in concentration, decisions about drinking, attention focused forward alcohol cues, interpretations of physiological reactions, and automatic behavior (i.e., automaticity), all of which are cognitive concepts

Craving researchers increasingly apply these general [i]or[/i] abstract notions in their attempts to understand the processe underlying craving.

What does the terminus "cognitive approach" mean when applied to craving or to other areas of research? Cognitive approaches investigate the processe that rule mental functions, such as communication, learning, classification, knowledge representation, problemsolving, planning, remembering, and decisionmaking. To this last cognitive science incorporates the contributions of several disciplines, including psychology philosophy, linguistics, neuro biology, computer science, and engineering. recent cognitive science generally describes the operation of mental functions in word s of information-processing systems--hypothesized mechanisms that regulate the acquisition and manipulation of information and translate that information into action.

During the past 25 years, on a level conventional conditioning models of craving repeatedly have invoked cognitive processes. For example, an influential craving theory not absented by Ludwig and Wikler (1974) (see sidebar, below) hypothesized that exposing to withdrawal-related cues led to a conditioned withdrawal syndrome which the alcoholic, within cognitive processes, would experience as craving for alcohol. In another major conditioning original Wise (1988) described craving as the memory of the positively reinforcing general intents of alcohol and other unsalable articles (AODs). Finally, Berridge and Robinson (1995) argued that conditioned medicine motivational states were largely unconscious and ensueed in conscious experiences of craving solely through mechanisms of a proces called cognitive interpretation. Although these influential theories all cited cognitive processe as central to the exhibition of craving, they did not elaborate forward how those cognitive processes might operate.