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Full-Text Articles in Psychology

Does Providing Accurate Information About Slot Machines Alter How Participants Play Them?, Jeffrey N. Weatherly, Ellen Meier Jan 2008

Does Providing Accurate Information About Slot Machines Alter How Participants Play Them?, Jeffrey N. Weatherly, Ellen Meier

Analysis of Gambling Behavior

It is a commonly held belief that irrational thoughts held by gamblers can pro-mote gambling behavior and ultimately pathological gambling. Some evidence exists to support this view, but little experimental work demonstrates that con-fronting these beliefs will lead to a decrease in gambling behavior. Eighteen non-pathological participants were given the option to play a slot machine for money. After gambling in two sessions, they were given accurate information about the independence of turns programmed by a slot machine, the negative rate of return of a slot machine over time, or both. Participants were then given the option to gamble in …


Commentary - Approaching Gambling As A Verbal Event: A Commentary On Fantino & Stolarz-Fantino (2008), Simon Dymond Jan 2008

Commentary - Approaching Gambling As A Verbal Event: A Commentary On Fantino & Stolarz-Fantino (2008), Simon Dymond

Analysis of Gambling Behavior

No abstract provided.


Using Performance Feedback To Teach Video Poker Players To Gamble Better, Mark R. Dixon, James W. Jackson Jan 2008

Using Performance Feedback To Teach Video Poker Players To Gamble Better, Mark R. Dixon, James W. Jackson

Analysis of Gambling Behavior

The present investigation reports two studies that examined the performance of non-pathological recreational video poker gamblers. In the first experiment, seven participants played three types of video poker games in a within partici-pants randomized sequence design. The percentage of errors made across games revealed the game variant “Deuces Wild” yielded more frequent mistakes than “Jacks or Better” or “Bonus Poker.” The second experiment consisted of a new sample of 11 participants being exposed to “Deuces Wild” poker to initially assess error percentages. Next, participants were all provided with performance feedback regarding their play, and finally the feedback was removed to …


Investigating Illusion Of Control In Experienced And Non-Experienced Gamblers: Replication And Extension, Lingyuan Wong, Jennifer L. Austin Jan 2008

Investigating Illusion Of Control In Experienced And Non-Experienced Gamblers: Replication And Extension, Lingyuan Wong, Jennifer L. Austin

Analysis of Gambling Behavior

The illusion of control is a phenomenon in which one erroneously believes he or she can exert control over the contingencies of chance events. To date, many of the studies investigating this phenomenon as it applies to gambling have used artificial gambling contexts and participants with no history of gambling beha-vior (i.e., undergraduates). This study replicated the procedures outlined in Di-xon, Hayes and Ebbs (1998) using experienced and inexperienced gamblers in a more natural gambling setting. Participants played 20 rounds of a game of rou-lette in which the default procedure was for the dealer to choose the bets. How-ever, players …


Commentary - Gambling: Not What It May Seem To Be, Jeffrey N. Weatherly Jan 2008

Commentary - Gambling: Not What It May Seem To Be, Jeffrey N. Weatherly

Analysis of Gambling Behavior

No abstract provided.


Do The Risk Factors For Pathological Gambling Predict Temporal Discounting?, Jeffrey N. Weatherly, Adam Derenne, Samantha Chase Jan 2008

Do The Risk Factors For Pathological Gambling Predict Temporal Discounting?, Jeffrey N. Weatherly, Adam Derenne, Samantha Chase

Analysis of Gambling Behavior

Weatherly and Dixon (2007) proposed that gambling was related to the increase in how individuals discount delayed (monetary) consequences and that several of the known risk factors for pathological gambling may serve as establishing operations or setting events that lead to such changes. The present study tested these predictions by having participants complete a paper-and-pencil discount-ing task involving hypothetical monetary consequences and determining wheth-er self-reported measures of the known risk factors would significantly predict participants’ rate of discounting. None of the risk factors served as significant predictors of discounting. Interestingly, however, the rate of discounting varied systematically as a function …


Delay Discounting And Pathological Gambling, Mark R. Dixon Jan 2008

Delay Discounting And Pathological Gambling, Mark R. Dixon

Analysis of Gambling Behavior

Over the past decade behavior analysts have paid increasing attention to the clin-ical phenomena of pathological gambling. Explorations have varied from ani-mal models to therapeutic interventions. Perhaps no topic has received greater attention in the behavioral gambling literature than the discounting of delayed consequences. Delay discounting has been noted as both a conceptual frame-work to understand problem gambling as well as a dependent variable by which to deduce level of pathology. Regardless of hypothesized process, discounting appears to be a topic of great interest to those within the behavioral community. This special section of the Analysis of Gambling Behavior brings …


Commentary - Understanding Gambling, Impulsivity, And Decision-Making: Self-Report And Behavioral Considerations, Marc N. Potenza Jan 2008

Commentary - Understanding Gambling, Impulsivity, And Decision-Making: Self-Report And Behavioral Considerations, Marc N. Potenza

Analysis of Gambling Behavior

No abstract provided.


Commentary - Gambling, Shaping And Ratio Contingencies, A. Charles Catania Jan 2008

Commentary - Gambling, Shaping And Ratio Contingencies, A. Charles Catania

Analysis of Gambling Behavior

No abstract provided.


Slot Machine Preferences And Self-Rules, Terje Fredheim, Kai-Ove Ottersen, Erik Arntzen Jan 2008

Slot Machine Preferences And Self-Rules, Terje Fredheim, Kai-Ove Ottersen, Erik Arntzen

Analysis of Gambling Behavior

The present study was a replication and extension of Zlomke and Dixon (2006) investigating the impact of contextually trained discriminations on slot-machine gambling. In each of two experiments, 20 participants were exposed to two con-currently available slot-machines differing only in color. Thus, Experiment 1 was a replication, while in Experiment 2 we included an instruction to ensure that the participants attended to all of the onscreen stimuli. Following a pretest of slot machine preferences, a nonarbitrary relational training and testing proce-dure was used to establish contextual functions of MORE-THAN and LESS-THAN for two cues. After relational training the participants were …


Commentary - Discounting Within The Gambling Context, Gregory J. Madden Jan 2008

Commentary - Discounting Within The Gambling Context, Gregory J. Madden

Analysis of Gambling Behavior

No abstract provided.


The Effects Of Nicotine On Gambling Behavior Of Smoking And Nonsmoking Undergraduate Students, Ellen Meier, Jeffrey N. Weatherly Jan 2008

The Effects Of Nicotine On Gambling Behavior Of Smoking And Nonsmoking Undergraduate Students, Ellen Meier, Jeffrey N. Weatherly

Analysis of Gambling Behavior

Gambling and smoking have been linked in the literature. The present study recruited smokers and nonsmokers to gamble on a slot machine after they chewed nicotine or non-nicotine gum. Re-sults showed that gambling behavior, both in terms of persistence and risk taking, did not differ as a function of either smoking status or type of gum the participants chewed. Although the present study has a number of limitations, the results highlight that factors correlated with gambling do not necessarily lead to differences in gambling behavior when people actually gamble.


Impact Of Jackpot And Near-Miss Magnitude On Rate And Subjective Probability Of Slot Machine Gamblers, Jeffrey Dillen, Mark R. Dixon Jan 2008

Impact Of Jackpot And Near-Miss Magnitude On Rate And Subjective Probability Of Slot Machine Gamblers, Jeffrey Dillen, Mark R. Dixon

Analysis of Gambling Behavior

The present study examined the degree to which varying amounts of jackpot size would impact the rate and subjective probability of slot machine play in recrea-tional gamblers. Twenty college undergraduates who reported occasional slot machine playing served as participants. Two groups of 10 participants were utilized with each group exposed to one of two monetary contingencies ($0.50 USD versus $2.00 USD). Various behavioral measures (e.g., inter-response times, subjective probabilities) were measured on each individual trial, and re-sistance to extinction was also examined. A significant difference of trial out-come (following losses and following wins) was found in respect to inter-response time …


Temporal Discounting Predicts How People Gamble On A Slot Machine, Jeffrey N. Weatherly, Joanna M. Marino, Joanna M. Marino, F. Richard Ferraro Jan 2008

Temporal Discounting Predicts How People Gamble On A Slot Machine, Jeffrey N. Weatherly, Joanna M. Marino, Joanna M. Marino, F. Richard Ferraro

Analysis of Gambling Behavior

The gambling research literature suggests that temporal discounting may be as-sociated with problem gambling, but research has not demonstrated that rates of discounting predict differences in actual gambling behavior. Thirty eight indi-viduals of different ages and backgrounds were recruited to complete several questionnaires, including a delay-discounting task. They were then given $10 in tokens with the opportunity to gamble on a slot machine. How steeply partici-pants discounted the delayed (hypothetical) monetary rewards was a significant predictor of they gambled. Gender, age, and reported annual income were not significant predictors. To our knowledge, these data are the first to demonstrate that …