Development of smoking cessation interventions informed by temporal discounting

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DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): This application for an Independent Scientist Award (K02) seeks funding that would enable the PI to translate his basic research on temporal discounting process into theoretically- and empirically-informed interventions for the treatment of addiction and related disorders. The career development plan will allow the PI to obtain training in intervention development and testing that will facilitate a synergistic relationship between basic/experimental and clinical research. This training will contribute to the PI's effort to open the lines of communication between these complementary areas of research; not only will innovative interventions to be informed by basic/experimental research, but basic/experimental research questions can then be informed by clinical insights, outcomes, and limitations. This training will involve the following interrelated areas: fundamentals of clinical interventions, processes of intervention development and modification, intervention testing and conduct of clinical trials, and data management and analysis of clinical trials research. Training will also involve research areas (neuroscience and cognitive science) that will contribute to translation of basic research into interventions. These career development goals will be met through consultation, research activities, and collaborations with established researchers in the areas of intervention development and testing, biostatistics, neuroscience, and cognitive science. Classroom and technical training as well as attendance at scientific meetings, workshops, and institutes will contribute to the proposed career development. The proposed didactic and career development activities are closely coupled with the research plan that is based on highly promising data indicating that Construal Level Theory can inform approaches to reduce temporal discounting. This research seeks to translate this significant finding, a predictor of dru abstinence, into a smoking cessation intervention. An Independent Scientist Award will provide the needed protected time for the PI to develop new skills in the study of intervention development and testing. These new skills will facilitate the clinical application of the PI's research on basic processes of temporal discounting, towards the development of innovative interventions addressing cigarette smoking, other drugs of abuse, and related behavioral disorders.