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Ferrari, Mario Anthony

University of British Columbia

Contemporary theories implicate habit formation as a psychological factor in the acquisition, maintenance, and relapse of addictions. Little research has examined the construct of ‘habit’ within the context of gambling. Cognitive psychology defines habits as automated responses that transition from voluntary to involuntary control, and once formed, become insensitive to delivery of the associated outcome. This dissertation outlines a program of research designed to examine behavioural measures that may reflect habit formation in the specific context of slot machine gambling. Slot machines are a form of gambling that are closely related to gambling harms, and are well-suited to engender habit formation. I developed a realistic simulation of a modern multi-line slot machine to identify ecologically-valid habits occurring during slot machine gambling. Study 1 assessed inexperienced slot machine gamblers who gambled on the simulation on three separate occasions. Analyses identified two candidate behaviours, spin initiation latency and bet switching, that were influenced by practice both within and between gambling sessions. These markers became more associated with game-related events (win size and loss streak length) as a function of practice. Participants in Study 1 also completed a Pavlovian-to-Instrumental Transfer task as a domain-general measure of habit formation. The two behavioural markers showed some associations with the strength of Pavlovian-to-Instrumental Transfer learning, supporting the validity of the markers as habit indices. Study 2 sought to extend the methods of Study 1 to an online environment, given the lack of research on online slot machine gambling and expansion of online gambling in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. Experienced gamblers were assigned to one of three experimental conditions that tested the influence of the game’s graphical user interface on spin initiation latency and bet switching. Analyses revealed that the latency measure differed significantly between keyboard and mouse-control interfaces, but bet switches and the overall subjective experience during gambling were not influenced by the interface design. Across the sample, problem gambling severity was associated with bet switching but not with spin initiation latencies. These results bear implications for future slot machine gambling research methods, cognitive-behavioural interventions for gambling, and risk-detection algorithms targeting high-risk gambling.

Text

2024-09-06

Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International

http://hdl.handle.net/2429/89201

Psychology

University of British Columbia

UBCV

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/