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Examining the effects of gambling-relevant cues on gambling outcome expectancies

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There is a consensus in the addictions literature that exposure to addiction-relevant cues can precipitate a desire to engage, or actual engagement, in the addictive behaviour. Previous work has shown that exposure to gambling-relevant cues activates gamblers’ positive gambling outcome expectancies (i.e. their beliefs about the positive results of gambling). The current study examined the effects of a new, arguably more ecologically valid cue manipulation (i.e. exposure to a gambling lab environment vs. sterile lab environment) on 61 regular gamblers’ explicit and implicit gambling outcome expectancies. The authors first tested the internal consistency of their implicit reaction time measure of gambling outcome expectancies, the Affective Priming Task. Split-half reliabilities were satisfactory to high (.72 to .88), highlighting an advantage of this task over other characteristically unreliable implicit cognitive measures. Unexpectedly, no predicted between-lab condition differences emerged on most measures of interest, suggesting that peripheral environmental cues that are not the focus of deliberate attentional allocation may not activate positive outcome expectancies. However, there was some evidence that implicit negative gambling outcome expectancies were activated in the gambling lab environment. This latter finding holds clinical relevance as it suggests that presenting peripheral gambling-related cues while treating problem gamblers may facilitate processing of the negative consequences of gambling.

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... However, the relevance of specific cues could be debated, as contradictory findings were found with such programs in real life and in lab conditions (Verdejo-Garcia, 2017). Specific cues are confronted to the artificial lab-environment of the experiment (Hudson et al., 2017). In gambling, it seems that specificity for the individual of a gambling cue could be difficult to reach in an experimental design ex vivo (Leyton and Vezina, 2012). ...
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INTRODUCTION: Cognitive deficits are being robustly documented in gambling disorder. Cognitive training has been increasingly investigated as a treatment of substance use disorders. Four training components have been listed to date: cognitive bias, response inhibition, working memory, and goal-directed. This review aimed at the identification of use and efficacy findings in cognitive training in gambling disorder. METHODS: We conducted a systematic search to identify use and efficacy data of cognitive training in gambling disorder. No use or efficacy data was available. DISCUSSION AND PERSPECTIVES: Studies assessing cognitive training in gambling disorder are being conducted and first results should be upcoming. Methodological challenges have been identified. Several candidate target cognitive functions of training programs are being investigated, relying on the most documented impairments in gambling disorder, inhibition, reward sensitivity and decision making. Gambling-specific or neutral environments are to be distinguished clearly and do not rely on similar assumptions, i.e. general vulnerability or vulnerability expressed only in the specific context of gambling. Proper control groups with placebo conditions should be implemented. Assessment of efficacy should include clinical and neuropsychological assessments to give information of underlying mechanisms of action. Copyright © 2018. Published by Elsevier Ltd.
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Research and Measurement Issues in Gambling Studies is a collection of chapters edited by Smith, Hodgins, & Williams (2007). This book is an ideal textbook for anyone who wishes to teach a course in research methods in the field of gambling studies. I’m not sure if such a course actually exists, but if it does, here’s the textbook. The authors of the various chapters are a virtual “who’s who” of prominent researchers in the field of gambling studies. The chapters cover nearly every approach to the study of gambling problems that I can think of, including surveys (chapters 2 & 3), experimental studies (chapter 4), longitudinal studies (chapter 6), pharmacological studies (chapter 14), economic studies (chapter 20), qualitative studies (chapters 5 & 22), prevention (chapter 16), treatment, (chapter 15), psychometric studies (chapter 8), cross cultural studies (chapter 18), and policy (chapters 23 and 24). In addition, there are several chapters that summarize the current research findings within specific areas, including internet gambling (chapter 19), game features (chapter 9), adolescent gambling (chapter 17), co-morbidity (chapter 12), gambling and crime (chapter 21), and risk factors (chapters 11 & 13). The only topic that I can think of that was not covered is the use of simulations of the games played by gamblers in order to understand the experience of the player (e.g., the outcomes of betting systems, the volatility and hit rate of different game designs, reinforcement schedules, distorted apparent payout due to virtual reels). In addition, economics methods are only covered in a single chapter that may not be representative of the general approach. However, on the whole this is an extraordinarily comprehensive survey of research methods in the field of gambling studies. As an added value, each chapter is laid out with numerous subtitles that allow the reader to turn directly to the sections that interest them the most. In addition, the table of contents lists every subtitle of every chapter making it one of the most useful and longest table of contents I have ever seen. In addition to this, the book also includes a comprehensive index. The approach of the chapters is somewhat mixed. In some chapters, the authors clearly take the position that they are teaching the reader how to conduct research in a particular area of interest. Other chapters are literature reviews that discuss a body of literature from a particular methodological point of view, rather than didactically explaining how to conduct the studies. I have not read every chapter in the book, but those that I have read are uniformly of high quality regardless of the approach taken. One chapter I have found particularly useful is the one discussing gambling and crime, written by Campbell & Marshal (chapter 17). Their approach is both a literature review and a didactic discussion on the difficulties that one can face in conducting research on gambling and crime. If you are setting up a course on methods of research in the field of problem gambling, this is the textbook for you. If you are a graduate student and want to know how to conduct research in this field, this is the resource for you. If you are a researcher looking for good summaries of the literature on a variety of topics, this is good reference book for you.
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The dot probe task is a widely used measure of attention allocation to threatening stimuli. The present two studies examine the reliability of different versions of this task using words as well as pictures as stimulus material. Estimates of both internal consistency and retest reliability over one week lead to the conclusion that the dot probe task is a completely unreliable measure of attentional allocation in non-clinical samples. This unreliability may explain the inconsistent findings for the dot probe task as reported in the literature. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
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This study qualitatively explored the impact of gambling advertising on problem gambling by interviewing twenty-five people with current or past gambling problems. Interviews were relatively long and involved the participants’ viewing numerous examples of gambling advertising. A quarter of the participants reported that gambling advertising had no impact on their problems, slightly over half of them reported that advertising had a marginal impact, and one fifth reported a tangible impact. However, none considered advertising to be a main cause of their gambling problems. The negative self-perceived impact was primarily that advertising triggered impulses to gamble. Advertising thus increased already high involvement in gambling and/or made it harder to stick to a decision to gamble less or not at all.
Article
There is growing interest in cognitive biases related to substance use, but evidence from the anxiety literature suggests that tasks commonly used to assess these may suffer from low internal reliability. We examined the internal reliability of the visual probe and modified Stroop tasks. Secondary analysis of visual probe and modified Stroop task data collected across seven independent studies. Human laboratory study. Healthy volunteers (n=408 across seven independent studies) recruited from the general population on the basis of alcohol or tobacco use. Visual probe and modified Stroop task measures of substance-related cognitive bias. Measures of cognitive bias for substance-related cues, as assayed by the visual probe and the modified Stroop tasks, may not be reliable. In particular, the visual probe task showed poor internal reliability, as did unblocked versions of the modified Stroop task. The modified Stroop task is preferable to the visual probe task as a measure of substance-related cognitive bias, on the basis of its psychometric properties. Studies using cognitive bias tasks should not assume they are reliable, and should routinely report reliability estimates where possible.
Article
This comment serves to provide a rationale for research clinical neuropsychologists to decide: (1) under what conditions multiple comparison methods are required; and (2) what specific guidelines can be used to distinguish conditions favoring a given multiple comparison technique over its competitors. The topic is discussed both for the parametric and nonparametric case, as well as for post hoc tests following both statistically significant main effects and interactions.
Article
Research is reviewed on the association between alcohol outcome expectancies and consumption which has led many to argue that manipulating expectancies might be a route to manipulating consumption for problem prevention and treatment. Studies indirectly and directly evaluating this latter position are reviewed. Expectancies predicting treatment outcome: two studies have shown that the more positive expectancies held at treatment, the poorer is treatment outcome, but five other studies have failed to find this. Three related studies have shown that the more negative expectancies held at treatment, the better the treatment outcome. This evaluation provides evidence inconsistent with the main position for positive expectancy and limited support for negative. Expectancy manipulations and ad libitum consumption: three studies in the laboratory have shown that increasing positive expectancies through word priming increases subsequent consumption and two studies have shown that increasing negative expectancies decreases it. A single study in the field showed a similar relationship. This evaluation provides evidence consistent with the main position but is limited by measuring consumption changes over only 1-2 hours. Prevention programmes with expectancy components: seven projects are reviewed in which positive expectancies were targeted, but only two report an expectancy change analysis and in both cases the expectancy change did not relate to subsequent consumption. This evaluation provides evidence inconsistent with the main position. Expectancy challenge: two related studies are reviewed in which positive expectancy challenges reduce subsequent consumption but changes in expectancy were not evaluated as predictors of consumption change. Two studies are reviewed which found a reduction in positive expectancy following expectancy challenge but no reduction in consumption. One study is reviewed in which when negative expectancy was increased in treatment there was a better treatment outcome at 3 months follow-up than when it was not. This evaluation provides evidence inconsistent with the main position for positive expectancy and limited consistent evidence for negative. It is concluded that the research has still to be done that securely links expectancy manipulations with subsequent changes in consumption, and fulfils the early promise from association studies.
Article
Psychological investigations of alcohol expectancies over the last 20 years, using primarily verbal techniques, have strongly supported expectancies as an important mediator of biological and environmental antecedent variables that influence risk for alcohol use and abuse. At the same time, rapid developments in neuroscience, cognitive science, affective science, computer science, and genetics proved to be compatible with the concept of expectancy and, in some cases, used this concept directly. By using four principles that bear on the integration of knowledge in the biological and behavioral sciences-consilience, conservation, contingency, and emergence-these developments are merged into an integrated explanation of alcoholism and other addictions. In this framework, expectancy is seen as a functional approach to adaptation and survival that has been manifested in multiple biological systems with different structures and processes. Understood in this context, addiction is not a unique behavioral problem or special pathology distinct from the neurobehavioral substrate that governs all behavior, but is rather a natural (albeit unfortunate) consequence of these same processes. The ultimate intent is to weave a working heuristic that ties together findings from molecular and molar levels of inquiry and thereby might help direct future research. Such integration is critical in the multifaceted study of addictions.
Article
Much evidence documents that individuals with emotional and drug-use disorders demonstrate biased attention toward stimuli associated with their disorder. This bias appears to diminish following successful treatment. Two studies examined whether current cigarette smokers show biased attention toward smoking-related images compared with non-smokers (Studies 1 and 2) and whether this bias is less pronounced in former smokers (Study 2). Attentional bias toward cigarette-related photographs was examined using the dot-probe task. Pairs of images (one smoking-related) appeared side by side for 500 ms on a computer screen prior to the presentation of a probe (an asterisk) replacing one of the photographs. Subjects struck a key as quickly as possible to indicate the probe location. Attentional bias was defined as faster reaction times when the probe replaced the smoking-related image. In both studies, current smokers displayed significantly greater attentional bias toward cigarette stimuli than did non-smokers. Former smokers in Study 2 displayed an intermediate level of bias, but did not differ significantly in bias score from either of the other groups. These results support further use of the dot-probe task as a measure of attentional bias in non-abstinent smokers and in individuals undergoing smoking cessation treatment.
Article
To test whether an expectancy challenge (EC) changes implicit and explicit alcohol-related cognitions and binge drinking in young heavy drinkers. This is important for theoretical and practical reasons: the EC presents a critical test for the hypothesized mediational role of alcohol cognitions and the EC has been presented as a promising intervention to counter alcohol problems in heavy drinking youth. SETTING, PARTICIPANTS AND INTERVENTION: Ninety-two heavy drinking college and university students (half women) were assigned randomly to the EC or control condition (a sham alcohol experiment in the same bar-laboratory). Explicit alcohol cognitions and alcohol use were assessed with paper-and-pencil measures. Alcohol use was assessed prior to the experiment and during a 1-month follow-up. Implicit alcohol-related cognitions were assessed with two versions of the Implicit Association Test (IAT), adapted to assess implicit valence and arousal associations with alcohol. The EC resulted in decreased explicit positive arousal expectancies in men and women alike. There was some evidence for a differential reduction in implicit arousal associations, but findings depended on the version of the IAT and on the scoring-algorithm used. In men (but not in women) there was a short-lived differential reduction in prospective alcohol use (significant in week 3 of the follow-up), and this reduction was partially mediated by the decrease in explicit positive arousal expectancies. These findings suggest that an EC successfully changes explicit alcohol cognitions and that this may have short-lived beneficial effects in heavy drinking young men.
Article
The focus of the discipline of neuropsychology is shifting towards a greater emphasis on understanding the relationship between assessment results and performance of everyday tasks (ecological validity). To date, the literature has highlighted the importance of this concept in the assessment of patients with brain injury or disease (e.g. in rehabilitation and forensic settings). This paper presents the argument that there is another important area in which the ecological validity of neuropsychological assessments should be considered: in clinical outcomes studies using neurologically intact participants. For example, determining the extent to which a medical procedure or intervention affects performance of everyday cognitive tasks can provide useful information that can potentially guide decision-making regarding treatment options. It is argued that tests designed with ecological validity in mind (the verisimilitude approach), as opposed to traditional tests, may be most effective at predicting everyday functioning. Explanations are proposed as to why researchers may be reluctant to use tests with verisimilitude in favor of more traditional measures.
Article
In apparent contrast to the alleged importance of positive alcohol expectancies in alcohol (ab)use, a series of studies using the Implicit Association Test (IAT; [Greenwald, A. G., McGhee, D. E., & Schwartz, J.L.K. (1998). Measuring individual differences in implicit cognition: The Implicit Association Test. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 74, 1464-1480]), found that heavy and light drinkers display more negative implicit attitudes toward alcohol than toward sodas (e.g., [Wiers, R. W., van Woerden, N., Smulders, F. T. Y., & de Jong, P. J. (2002). Implicit and explicit alcohol-related cognitions in heavy and light drinkers. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 111, 648-658]). One explanation for this might be that the negative-alcohol IAT effect reflects an artifact of the IAT procedure and are due to its relative nature and/or its sensitivity to task recoding strategies. Therefore, the present study used a non-relative measure that has been argued to be robust against participants' task recoding strategies (Extrinsic Affective Simon Test; EAST, [De Houwer, J. (2001). A structural and process analysis of the Implicit Association Test. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 37, 443-451]) to test heavy (n=16) and light (n=16) drinkers' automatic affective associations with alcohol and sodas. Heavy and light drinkers displayed clear positive associations with sodas and neutral (or ambivalent) automatic associations with alcohol. Importantly, positive automatic alcohol associations predicted unique variance of alcohol (mis)use and was the single best predictor of individuals' alcohol problems, underlining the idea that they do play a role in alcohol (mis)use.
Article
The results of previous studies suggest that the EAST as introduced by De Houwer [(2003). The extrinsic affective Simon task. Experimental Psychology, 50, 77-85] does not perform well as a measure of interindividual differences in attitudes and other assocations in memory. This could be due to the fact that the target concepts in the EAST are task irrelevant and thus might not always be processed. We introduce a variant of the EAST in which participants do need to process the target concepts in order to perform the task. Using this variant, we measured implicit attitudes toward the target concepts beer and sprouts in people who consume many (heavy drinkers) or few (light drinkers) alcoholic drinks per week. As can be expected on the basis of a priori arguments, heavy drinkers had a more positive implicit attitude toward beer than light drinkers whereas both groups did not differ in their implicit attitude toward sprouts. Also, our measure of implicit attitudes was related to self-reported alcohol consumption even after controlling for explicit attitudes.
Article
We explored the impact of musically induced positive and anxious mood on the implicit alcohol-related cognitions of 48 undergraduate students who drink either to enhance positive mood states (EM) or to cope with anxiety (CM-anxiety). Participants completed a post-mood induction computerized alcohol Stroop task that taps implicit alcohol-related cognitions. As hypothesized, CM-anxiety participants in the anxious (but not those in the positive) mood condition showed longer colour-naming latencies for alcohol (vs. non-alcohol) targets (i.e., an attentional bias toward alcohol-related stimuli). Also conforming to expectation was the finding that EM participants in the positive (but not those in the anxious) mood condition displayed longer colour-naming latencies for (i.e., an attentional bias toward) alcohol (vs. non-alcohol) target words.
Article
In two experiments, we investigated whether different mood states activate specific types of implicit alcohol cognition among undergraduates classified as enhancement (EM) or coping (CM) motivated drinkers. Participants completed a Stroop task in Experiment 1 (n=81), and an Extrinsic Affective Simon Task (EAST; [De Houwer, J. (2003). The Extrinsic Affective Simon Task. Experimental Psychology, 50, 77-85.]) in Experiment 2 (n=79) following random assignment to listen to positive or negative musical mood induction procedures (MMIP). Consistent with hypotheses, only EM, and not CM, drinkers displayed an activation of implicit attention to alcohol cues (Experiment 1) and reward-alcohol implicit associations (Experiment 2) following exposure to positive MMIP. Contrary to hypotheses for CM drinkers, none of the groups, in either experiment, showed an activation of implicit alcohol processing following exposure to negative MMIP. Confidence that positive mood activates implicit alcohol cognition among EM drinkers is increased since this result emerged across two studies involving quite different methodologies. This research has implications for experimental cognitive research and it highlights the potential utility of treatment matching according to drinking motives (e.g., EM) to improve clinical outcomes.
The Canadian problem gambling index: User's manual
  • J Ferris
  • H Wynne
Ferris, J., & Wynne, H. (2001). The Canadian problem gambling index: User's manual. Toronto, ON: Canadian Centre on Substance Abuse.
The influence of casino architecture and structure on problem gambling behaviour: An examination using virtual reality technology
  • K Finlay-Gough
  • H Marmurek
  • V Kanetkar
  • J Londerville
Finlay-Gough, K., Marmurek, H., Kanetkar, V., & Londerville, J. (2015). The influence of casino architecture and structure on problem gambling behaviour: An examination using virtual reality technology. In ECRM2015-Proceedings of the 14th European Conference on Research Methods.
Direct and indirect ways of assessing beliefs about gambling in the advertising context
  • S H Stewart
  • M Ellery
  • S Yi
Stewart, S. H., Ellery, M., & Yi, S. (2015). Direct and indirect ways of assessing beliefs about gambling in the advertising context. Final report prepared for the Manitoba Gambling Research Program.
Using multivariate statistics
  • B G Tabachnick
  • L S Fidell
Tabachnick, B. G., & Fidell, L. S. (2007). Using multivariate statistics (5th ed.). Boston, MA: Allyn and Bacon.