Background Electronic cigarettes, or ecigarettes, are battery operated devices that deliver nicotine via inhaled vapor. There is considerable controversy about the disease risk and toxicity of ecigarettes and empirical evidence on short- and long-term health effects is minimal. Limited data on e-cigarette use and correlates exist, and to our knowledge, no prevalence rates among U.S. college students have been reported. This study aimed to estimate the prevalence of ecigarette use and identify correlates of use among a large, multi-institution, random sample of college students. Methods 4,444 students from 8 colleges in North Carolina completed a Webbased survey in fall 2009. Results Ever use of ecigarettes was reported by 4.9% of students, with 1.5% reporting past month use. Correlates of ever use included male gender, Hispanic or “Other race” (compared to non-Hispanic Whites), Greek affiliation, conventional cigarette smoking and e-cigarette harm perceptions. Although e-cigarette use was more common among conventional cigarette smokers, 12% of ever e-cigarette users had never smoked a conventional cigarette. Among current cigarette smokers, e-cigarette use was negatively associated with lack of knowledge about e-cigarette harm, but was not associated with intentions to quit. Conclusions Although e-cigarette use was more common among conventional cigarette smokers, it was not exclusive to them. E-cigarette use was not associated with intentions to quit smoking among a sub-sample of conventional cigarette smokers. Unlike older, more established cigarette smokers, e-cigarette use by college students does not appear to be motivated by the desire to quit cigarette smoking.

Objectives-We used prospective, longitudinal data to directly test whether smoking-related perceptions predict smoking initiation among adolescents.Methods-We administered surveys assessing perceptions of smoking-related risks and benefits to 395 high school students, beginning at the start of their ninth-grade year. We conducted followup assessments every 6 months until the end of 10th grade, obtaining 4 waves of data.Results-Adolescents who held the lowest perceptions of long-term smoking-related risks were 3.64 times more likely to start smoking than were adolescents who held the highest perceptions of risk. Adolescents who held the lowest perceptions of short-term smoking-related risks were 2.68 times more likely to initiate smoking. Adolescents who held the highest perceptions of smokingrelated benefits were 3.31 times more likely to initiate smoking.Conclusions-Smoking initiation is directly related to smoking-related perceptions of risks and benefits. Efforts to reduce adolescent smoking should continue to communicate the health risks of smoking and counteract perceptions of benefits associated with smoking.Requests for reprints should be sent to Bonnie L.

Most models of recognition memory involve a signal-detection component in which a criterion is placed along a decision axis. Older models generally assume a familiarity-decision axis, but newer models often assume a likelihood ratio axis instead because it allows for a more natural account of the ubiquitous mirror effect. In 3 experiments reported here, item strength was differentially manipulated to see whether a mirror effect would occur. Within a list, the items from 1 category were strengthened by repetition, but the items from another category were not. On the subsequent recognition test, the hit rate was higher for the strong category, but the false-alarm rates for the weak and strong categories were the same (i.e., no mirror effect was observed). This result suggests that the decision axis represents a familiarity scale and that participants adopt a single decision criterion that they maintain throughout the recognition test.

No abstract

Objective-To evaluate developmental changes, personal smoking experiences, and vicarious smoking experiences as predictors of adolescents' perceptions of the risks and benefits of cigarette smoking over time, in order to identify new and effective targets for youth smoking prevention programs.Design-395 adolescents were surveyed every six months for two school years, from the beginning of 9 th grade to the end of 10 th grade.Main Outcome Measures-Time, participant smoking, friend smoking, parental smoking, and sex were evaluated as predictors of smoking-related short-term risk perceptions, long-term risk perceptions, and benefits perceptions using multilevel modeling techniques.Results-Perceptions of benefits did not change over time. Perceptions of risk decreased with time, but not after sex and parental smoking were included in the model. Adolescents with personal smoking experience reported decreasing perceptions of risk and increasing perceptions of benefits over time. Adolescents with more than 6 friends who smoked also reported increasing perceptions of benefits over time.Conclusions-Changes in risk perceptions may not purely be the result of developmental processes, but may also be influenced by personal and vicarious experience with smoking. Findings highlight the importance of identifying and targeting modifiable factors that may influence perceptions. KeywordsAdolescent; Risk Perception; Cigarette Smoking; Decision-Making Cigarette smoking is the leading preventable cause of death in the United States, and is responsible for more than 440,000 deaths per year (Centers for Disease Control and Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Holly E. R. Morrell, Ph.D., University of California, San Francisco, 3333 California St., Suite 245, San Francisco, California 94118; holly.morrell@ucsf.edu.. Publisher's Disclaimer: The following manuscript is the final accepted manuscript. It has not been subjected to the final copyediting, fact-checking, and proofreading required for formal publication. It is not the definitive, publisher-authenticated version. The American Psychological Association and its Council of Editors disclaim any responsibility or liabilities for errors or omissions of this manuscript version, any version derived from this manuscript by NIH, or other third parties. The published version is available at www.apa.org/pubs/journals/HEA NIH Public Access (SAMHSA, 2007). Therefore, it is vitally important to identify which factors place adolescents at increased risk for smoking initiation.Evidence suggests that one of the most proximal influences on adolescent smoking behavior may be their perceptions of the risks and benefits of smoking (Gerrard, Gibbons, Benthin, & Hessling, 1996; Halpern-Felsher, Biehl, Kropp, & Rubenstein, 2004; Halpern-Felsher, Ramos, & Cornell, 2007;Krosnick, Chang, Sherman, Chassin, & Presson, 2006;Rodriguez, Romer, & Audrain-McGovern, 2007;Romer & Jamieson, 2001;Song et al., 2009). This is consistent with theories of health behavior, such as the ...