A potential link between cognitive and behaviour theories of problem gambling?
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1
Southern Cross University, School of Health & Human Sciences, Australia
Gambling is ubiquitous in Australia. While most people gamble with few or no negative consequences, a small yet significant proportion of people develop disordered gambling behaviour. Behaviour theories posit the ‘contingencies of reinforcement’ as the conspicuous cause of problem gambling; whereas cognitive theories assume disordered behaviour arises due to erroneous beliefs about chance, probability or random events.
Aims:
The current study argued for a hybrid approach—by investigating relationships between the attitudes and beliefs of social gamblers and gambling-related attentional bias. Continued reinforcement of cues with their related behaviour, results in an increased efficiency of those cues to capture attention; ultimately leading to a rise in the behaviour. Thus, attentional bias measures are indicative of the sensitivity of an individual’s attention system towards salient cues. In line with both cognitive and behaviour theories, we examined the relationships between, gambling frequency, Gambling Attitudes and Beliefs Survey scores (GABS-23) and attentional bias.
Method:
Participants (N = 38) viewed simultaneous pairs of gambling-related and neutral images, while performing a dot-probe task; during which their eye-movements were recorded. This enabled both direct and indirect measures of attentional bias to be obtained.
Results:
Gambling frequency and GABS-23 scores predicted both direct and indirect measures of a bias in the maintenance of attention to gambling cues. No bias in attentional engagement was found. These results suggest that regular gamblers who have not yet developed any related problems show signs of sensitisation to gambling cues and may be at risk of progressing further towards problematic gambling behaviour.
Conclusions:
This study provides clear evidence of a link between distorted cognitions and a potential learning mechanism involved in the process leading from social to dysfunctional gambling.
Keywords:
attentional bias,
Cognition,
attitudes,
beliefs,
Eye-tracking,
incentive sensitisation
Conference:
Australasian Society for Psychophysiology, Inc, Coffs Harbour, Australia, 26 Nov - 28 Nov, 2014.
Presentation Type:
Oral Presentation
Topic:
Psychophysiology
Citation:
Grant
L
(2014). A potential link between cognitive and behaviour theories of problem gambling?.
Conference Abstract:
Australasian Society for Psychophysiology, Inc.
doi: 10.3389/conf.fnhum.2014.216.00035
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Received:
23 Oct 2014;
Published Online:
02 Dec 2014.
*
Correspondence:
Mr. Leigh Grant, Southern Cross University, School of Health & Human Sciences, Coffs Harbour, Australia, leigh.grant@me.com