Cognitive Distortions

Question 1

key issues

Answer 1

• Cognitive theory of gambling identifies various decision-making distortions that cause the gambler to misperceive the likelihood of winning
• Evidence for the cognitive account
• • Think Aloud technique
• • Questionnaire measures
• • Laboratory & field evidence

Question 2

explanations of gambling

Answer 2

• Over-arching theory should explain why:
• • Gambling is so common in the general population
• • Gambling becomes addictive in a minority
• Why do people gamble if the expected value is negative?
• • Two possible explanations:
• – 1) The excitement gambling provides compensates for expected economic loss
• – 2) Many people have an expectation of gain

Question 3

Think-Aloud technique: basics and initial results

Answer 3

• Gambler plays in a natural environment for 5 minutes and vocalizes all thoughts
• Thoughts coded as sensible (ex. “this is just chance”) or erroneous (ex. “I’m getting good at this game”, “the machine has got it in for me”, “I was supposed to win that”)
• 70-90% of gamblers’ thoughts are erroneous, primarily tied to actual play (ie. When they’re playing) and preferred game
• Erroneous thoughts elevated in problem gamblers and correlated with heart rate/arousal increases

Question 4

Think-Aloud technique: follow-up

Answer 4

• 1 week later, participants return and look at graphs of 3 different types of participants and identify which one they are
• • Participant A makes mostly accurate statements
• • Participant B makes about an equal number of accurate and erroneous ones
• • Participant C makes mostly erroneous statements
• Majority of participants feel they are Participant A, and that Participant C likely has serious gambling problems (BUT, turns out most of them are actually Participant C – bias blind spot)

Question 5

Critiques of think-aloud

Answer 5

• Requirement to verbalize is unnatural – does this change the nature of the cognitions?
• There are relatively few ways to express rational thoughts about the game (ex. “It’s just chance… it’s just chance”)
• Non problem-gamblers express so many irrational beliefs, it was hard to show an increase in problem gamblers
• • Are they merely “post-hoc rationalizations”? (explaining something to yourself after the fact)

Question 6

post-hoc explanation example: window-shopping experiment

Answer 6

• participants evaluate 4 of the exact same (unbeknownst to participants) items of clothing and chose their favourite -> item on far right preferred much more often
• • Participants give detailed justifications for this; nobody mentions item position

Question 7

Gambling-related cognitions scale

Answer 7

• Skill-oriented gambling cognitions:
• • Illusions of control (ex. “I have specific rituals that increase my chances of winning”)
• • Predictive control (ex. “Losses when gambling are bound to be followed by a series of wins”)
• • Interpretive bias (ex. “Relating my winnings to my skill and ability makes me continue gambling
• Beliefs about the Self
• • Gambling expectancies (ex. “Gambling makes things seem better”
• • Inability to stop gambling (ex. “I’m not strong enough to stop gambling”)

Question 8

examples of distorted cognitions

Answer 8

• Illusion of control: overrating ability to win
• Lucky charms
• Fundamental Attribution Errors:
• • Gambler’s fallacy
• • Chasing
• • Anthropomorphism (giving human characteristics to inanimate objects – ex. “this slot machine hates me”)
• • Hindsight bias
• • Selective memory (recalling wins easily, but not losses)
• • Beliefs in luck
• • Illusory associations (“superstitious conditioning”)