My research is in the area of drug addiction. I do studies on the processes of drug craving, the causes of drug dependence, the diagnosis of dependence, adolescent drug use, and the interaction of biological and psychological factors in the control of addictive behaviors. My craving work focuses on understanding the role of drug craving in addiction. I have also done research on the variables that regulate the development of addiction in young cigarette smokers. In addition, I conduct research on the processes that motivate addictive behavior. In some of our research, my students and I examine addicts’ craving reactions to cues that are related to drug use. For example, smokers might be shown pictures of someone lighting a cigarette. Recently, we have looked at cue reactions when smokers are presented with cues in their natural environment. In other research, we are developing new behavioral and biological measures to track the smoking behavior of low-level smokers.
I was awarded the American Psychological Association Distinguished Scientific Award for Early Career Contribution to Psychology in 1993. I have been on the editorial boards of several journals including the Journal of Abnormal Psychology, Psychotherapy, Studies on Alcohol, Experimental and Clinical Psychopharmacology and Nicotine and Tobacco Research. I have also served as a member of several NIH scientific review panels and have been a member of the Scientific Core Group of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s Tobacco Etiology Research Network (TERN) since the inception of the network in 1997. I am currently a member of the Research, Prevention, and Intervention for Addictions (RPIA), National Institutes of Health Review Committee.
Representative Publications
Dowd, A. N., Motschman, M.A., & Tiffany, S.T. (in press). Development and validation of the Questionnaire of Vaping Craving. Nicotine & Tobacco Research.
Motschman, M. A., Germeroth. L. J., & Tiffany, S.T. (in press). Momentary Changes in Craving Predict Smoking Lapse Behavior: A Laboratory Study. Psychopharmacology.
Gass, J. C. & Tiffany, S. T. (2017). Craving and tobacco-use: Development of the choice behavior under cued conditions (CBUCC) procedure. Psychology of Addictive Behaviors, 31, 276-283.
Tomko, R. L., Saladin, M. E., McClure, E. A., Squeglia, L. M., Carpenter, M. J., Tiffany, S. T., Baker, N. L., & Gray, K. M. (2017). Alcohol consumption as a predictor of reactivity to smoking and stress cues presented in the natural environment of smokers. Psychopharmacology, 234, 427-435.
Gass, J. C., Germeroth, L. J., Wray, J. M., & Tiffany, S. T. (2016). The reliability and stability of puff topography variables in non-daily smokers assessed in the laboratory. Nicotine & Tobacco Research, 18, 484-490.
Motschman, C. A., Gass, J. C., Wray, J. M., Germeroth, L. J., Schlienz, N. J., Hamilton, D. A., Moore, F. E., Rhodes, J. D., Tiffany, S. T., & Hawk, L. W. (2016). Selection criteria limit generalizability of smoking pharmacotherapy studies differentially across clinical trials and laboratory studies: A systematic review on varenicline. Drug and Alcohol Dependence, 169,180-189.
Motschman, C.A. & Tiffany, S. T. (2016). Cognitive regulation of smoking behavior within a cigarette: Automatic and nonautomatic processes. Psychology of Addictive Behaviors, 30, 494-495.
Pericot-Valverde, I., Germeroth, L. J., & Tiffany, S.T. (2016). The use of virtual reality in the production of cue-specific craving for cigarettes: A meta-analysis. Nicotine & Tobacco Research, 18, 538-546.
Wray, J. M., Gass, J. C., Miller, E., Wilkins, D., Rollins, D., & Tiffany, S. T. (2016). A Comparative evaluation of self-report and biological measures of cigarette use in non-daily smokers. Psychological Assessment, 28, 1043-1050.
Germeroth, L. J. & Tiffany, S. T. (2015). An examination of reactivity to craving assessment: craving to smoke does not change over the course of a multi-item craving questionnaire. Addictive Behaviors.45, 74-78.
Germeroth, L. J., Wray, J. M., & Tiffany, S. T. (2015). Response time to craving item ratings as an implicit measure of craving-related processes. Clinical Psychological Science, 3, 530-544.
Wray, J. M., Gray, K. M., McClure, E. A., Carpenter, M. J., Tiffany, S. T., Saladin, M. E. (2015). Gender differences in responses to cues presented in the natural environment of cigarette smokers. Nicotine & Tobacco Research, 17, 438-442.
Smoking Research Lab 