Effects of preparation, experimenter contact, and a maintained reduction alternative on a broad-spectrum program for eliminating smoking

The present investigation compared the successful two-stage treatment reported by Lando (1977) against an intensified version of a less successful three-stage program (Lando, 1978). Minimal experimenter contact and maintained reduction for nonabstinent subjects were also assessed. Subjects were 44 males and 56 females. Although there was a consistent trend for two-stage treatment to produce better results than three-stage treatment, differences between these conditions were significant only at 12-month follow-up. Intensive contact was superior to minimal contact only at Week 1. The maintained reduction procedure was not successfully implemented. Significant interactions were evident between experimenter contact and treatment stages throughout the follow-up period, with two-stage subjects appearing to benefit from intensive contact and three-stage subjects actually doing better under minimal contact. Results supported the efficacy of the two-stage aversion and maintenance program first reported by Lando (1977). Results also contradicted the assumption that more complex is necessarily better and pointed to the inadequacy of simple post hoc alternatives for nonabstinent subjects.