Reward processing, motivation and emotional responding during slot machine play

点击翻译按钮获取中文摘要

One of the most popular forms of gambling involves slot machine play. This proposal investigates how players react emotionally to certain slot machine outcomes. Near-misses occur when players "just miss" the jackpot (e.g., get two 7s on the payline with the third just off the payline). Losses disguised as wins (LDWs) occur when a player "wins" back less than they wager on that spin. On modern slot machines players can bet for example 5 cents on each of 20 lines for a total wager of $1.00. When they spin and lose their dollar, the machine goes into a state of quiet. When they spin and win a dollar the machine highlights the win with flashing lines, and a winning song. When they spin and get back say back 25 cents (i.e., the LOSE 75 cents) the machine still celebrates the "win" with flashing lines and winning songs. Certain slots features give players the illusion that they have some control over what are random outcomes. For example players can push a "stop-button" to stop the spinning reels. All the stop button does is reveal the randomly selected outcome more quickly. When a win occurs after a player uses the stop button, they sometimes attribute the win to the timing of their stop-button press. The goal is to show that this illusion of control over slots outcomes exaggerates the emotional reactions to the slots outcomes. I will use skin conductance (when we are excited or frustrated our hands sweat) and post-reinforcement pauses (when players spin and win, they pause slightly before initiating the next spin) to document these exaggerated reactions. I will show that in slot machine play, wins cause excitement, and near-misses cause frustration, but also increase the urge to continue gambling. I will then show that features like the stop-button cause players react even more strongly to wins and near-misses. I will show that LDWs cause players to feel like they are on a "hot streak" even when they are losing money and this effect is exaggerated when players feel they control outcomes. This research will better our understanding of the motivation to gamble, emotions while gambling, and how we (mis)interpret rewards while gambling.