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Experimental Analysis of Behavior

Gambling

2011

Articles 1 - 3 of 3

Full-Text Articles in Psychology

A Rat Model Of Gambling Behavior And Its Extinction: Effects Of "Win" Probability On Choice In A Concurrent-Chains Procedure, David N. Kearns, Maria A. Gomez-Serrano Jan 2011

A Rat Model Of Gambling Behavior And Its Extinction: Effects Of "Win" Probability On Choice In A Concurrent-Chains Procedure, David N. Kearns, Maria A. Gomez-Serrano

Analysis of Gambling Behavior

Two experiments examined the effects of varying the probability of “wins” within a rat model of gambling. On a concurrent-chains procedure, rats could choose between a “work” lever on which a fixed 20 responses produced a food pellet or a “gamble” lever, where on some trials (“wins”) only one response was required for reinforcement while on other trials 40 responses were required. Despite the fact that the work lever was always associated with the higher overall reinforcement rate, rats frequently chose to respond on the gamble lever. The frequency with which rats chose the gamble lever varied as a function …


Comparing Three Strategies Of Motivating Gambling Behavior In The Laboratory Environment, Jeffrey M. Peterson, Jeffrey N. Weatherly Jan 2011

Comparing Three Strategies Of Motivating Gambling Behavior In The Laboratory Environment, Jeffrey M. Peterson, Jeffrey N. Weatherly

Analysis of Gambling Behavior

The present study compared three methods of motivating participants’ gambling behavior in a laboratory environment. Thirteen university students played in three sessions of video poker, which differed in whether participants were 1) asked to play “as if” gambling real money, 2) staked with real money, and 3) in competition with other participants for a gift card. Also measured was whether participants’ reported annual income would influence their gambling behavior under these conditions. Results showed that the number of hands played and the accuracy of game play did not differ across the different sessions. The number of credits bet, which is …


Altering Probability Discounting In A Gambling Simulation, Benjamin N. Witts, Patrick M. Ghezzi, Jeffrey N. Weatherly Jan 2011

Altering Probability Discounting In A Gambling Simulation, Benjamin N. Witts, Patrick M. Ghezzi, Jeffrey N. Weatherly

Analysis of Gambling Behavior

In gambling, our decisions regarding what gambles to take and how much we are willing to wager might, in part, be influenced by our histories with respect to gambling outcomes. Given a less temporally-distant history with gambling that favors losses, wins, or breaking even may create alterations in one’s discounting pattern, albeit most likely temporary. Given the topographical similarity between gambling procedures and probabilistic discounting tasks, probability discounting was used to assess potential changes in discounting resulting from a gambling task designed specifically for this study. Probabilistic discounting patterns for 38 undergraduate students before and after exposure to a simulated …