Although it is well established that drug conditioned stimuli produce a variety of conditioned responses, it is not known whether such stimuli can also reinforce an arbitrary operant response and thus serve as conditioned reinforcers. Volunteers ( ) recruited from a residential treatment center for substance dependence were tested on a task in which presses on computer keys activated images of drugs/drug paraphernalia on a progressive ratio schedule of reinforcement. They also completed a personalized craving questionnaire and a personalized Implicit Association Test. A significant bias in responding was found for images of preferred drugs/route of drug administration. Craving, however, was low and the images generated negative evaluative reactions. Two additional studies were performed to ascertain the generalizability of the effects to a different population of drug-using individuals (i.e., students who drink) and to incentive stimuli of a different nature (i.e., sexual). The additional studies partially replicated and extended the central findings of the main study. Therefore, although these data should be considered preliminary in light of small group sizes, it is concluded that cue specificity and availability of the unconditioned stimuli (drugs and sex) plays a role in modulating responding maintained by conditioned reinforcers. 1. Introduction Drug conditioned stimuli, which can be discrete (i.e., a syringe) and/or environmental (i.e., a room), acquire the ability to activate drug-oriented behaviors because they are repeatedly perceived in conjunction with the unconditioned effects of drugs of abuse [1–3]. Hence, through Pavlovian conditioning, drug conditioned stimuli become wanted [4] and preferred [5], grab attention [6–8], and produce a variety of physiological and psychological responses [9–15]. The current study had two primary objectives. The first was to establish whether drug conditioned stimuli (i.e., images of drugs and drug paraphernalia) can serve as conditioned reinforcers. Conditioned reinforcing stimuli, unlike primary reinforcing stimuli, strengthen behavioral responses in virtue of their learned value. Therefore, the objective of this study was to determine whether the occurrence of stimuli associated with the effects of drugs can maintain an arbitrary operant response (i.e., pressing a computer key) in the absence of drugs [16]. This is of interest because it is possible that the assessment of the reinforcing value of drug conditioned stimuli could complement other measures of “cue reactivity” such as self-reported craving [17,
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