Cognitive distortions and gambling near-misses in Internet Gaming Disorder: A preliminary study

Yin Wu; Guillaume Sescousse; Hongbo Yu; Luke Clark; Hong Li

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0191110

Cognitive distortions and gambling near-misses in Internet Gaming Disorder: A preliminary study

PLoS One. 2018 Jan 18;13(1):e0191110. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0191110. eCollection 2018.

Authors

Yin Wu^{1

2}, Guillaume Sescousse³, Hongbo Yu⁴, Luke Clark⁵, Hong Li^{1

2}

Affiliations

¹ Research Center for Brain Function and Psychological Science, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen, China.
² Shenzhen Key Laboratory of Affective and Social Cognitive Science, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen, China.
³ Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour, Radboud University, Nijmegen, The Netherlands.
⁴ Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom.
⁵ Centre for Gambling Research at UBC, Department of Psychology, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.

Abstract

Increased cognitive distortions (i.e. biased processing of chance, probability and skill) are a key psychopathological process in disordered gambling. The present study investigated state and trait aspects of cognitive distortions in 22 individuals with Internet Gaming Disorder (IGD) and 22 healthy controls. Participants completed the Gambling Related Cognitions Scale as a trait measure of cognitive distortions, and played a slot machine task delivering wins, near-misses and full-misses. Ratings of pleasure ("liking") and motivation to play ("wanting") were taken following the different outcomes, and gambling persistence was measured after a mandatory phase. IGD was associated with elevated trait cognitive distortions, in particular skill-oriented cognitions. On the slot machine task, the IGD group showed increased "wanting" ratings compared with control participants, while the two groups did not differ regarding their "liking" of the game. The IGD group displayed increased persistence on the slot machine task. Near-miss outcomes did not elicit stronger motivation to play compared to full-miss outcomes overall, and there was no group difference on this measure. However, a near-miss position effect was observed, such that near-misses stopping before the payline were rated as more motivating than near-misses that stopped after the payline, and this differentiation was attenuated in the IGD group, suggesting possible counterfactual thinking deficits in this group. These data provide preliminary evidence for increased incentive motivation and cognitive distortions in IGD, at least in the context of a chance-based gambling environment.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Adult
Case-Control Studies
Female
Gambling / psychology*
Humans
Internet*
Male
Young Adult

Grants and funding

YW was supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China (31600923), Shenzhen Philosophy and Social Science Foundation (135C019), Shenzhen University Natural Science Research Fund (2016073) and Shenzhen University Social and Humanity Science Research Fund (17QNFC44). GS was supported by a VENI grant from the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO). HY was supported by a Newton International Fellowship from the Royal Society (NF160700). The Centre for Gambling Research at UBC, which provided salary support for LC, is supported by funding from the British Columbia Lottery Corporation and the Province of British Columbia government. Corporation and the Province of British Columbia government, which provided salary support for LC; the funding bodies did not have any role in the study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript. The specific roles of these authors are articulated in the “author contributions” section.