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01-09-2014 | Original Paper

Effects of Gambling-Related Cues on the Activation of Implicit and Explicit Gambling Outcome Expectancies in Regular Gamblers

Authors: Melissa J. Stewart, Sunghwan Yi, Sherry H. Stewart

Published in: Journal of Gambling Studies | Issue 3/2014

Abstract

The current research examined whether the presentation of gambling-related cues facilitates the activation of gambling outcome expectancies using both reaction time (RT) and self-report modes of assessment. Gambling outcome expectancies were assessed by having regular casino or online gamblers (N = 58) complete an outcome expectancy RT task, as well as a self-report measure of gambling outcome expectancies, both before and after exposure to one of two randomly assigned cue conditions (i.e., casino or control video). Consistent with hypotheses, participants exposed to gambling-related cues (i.e., casino cue video condition) responded faster to positive outcome expectancy words preceded by gambling prime relative to non-gambling prime pictures on the post-cue RT task. Similarly, participants in the casino cue video condition self-reported significantly stronger positive gambling outcome expectancies than those in the control cue video condition following cue exposure. Activation of negative gambling outcome expectancies was not observed on either the RT task or self-report measure. The results indicate that exposure to gambling cues activates both implicit and explicit positive gambling outcome expectancies among regular gamblers.

The inclusion criterion that individuals had to have gambled at a casino or online was made to ensure that the gambling-related primes in the RT task would apply to all gambler participants equally.

We selected track and field as the control category because it is an activity that is similar to gambling in both size and complexity. Specifically, both gambling and track and field are broad categories that encompass a variety of different activities. Track and field is also an activity that could theoretically be associated with both positive outcomes (excitement, winning) and negative outcomes (frustration, tension).

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Title: Effects of Gambling-Related Cues on the Activation of Implicit and Explicit Gambling Outcome Expectancies in Regular Gamblers
Authors: Melissa J. Stewart
Sunghwan Yi
Sherry H. Stewart
Publication date: 01-09-2014
Publisher: Springer US
Published in: Journal of Gambling Studies / Issue 3/2014
Electronic ISSN: 1573-3602
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10899-013-9383-8

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Effects of Gambling-Related Cues on the Activation of Implicit and Explicit Gambling Outcome Expectancies in Regular Gamblers

Abstract

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