Griffiths

Griffiths

Aim: To examins the thought processes and behaviours of reghular and non-regular gamblers 

Hypotheses 

1. No difference in skill level between regular and non-regular gamblers

2. Regular gamblers will produce more irrational vocalizations than non regular gamblers

3. Regular gamblers will report themselves as more skill orientated than non-regular gamblers

4. Thinking aloud participants will take longer to finish the task

Participants 

• 60 participants 
• Mean age of 23 years 
• 30 regular gamblers (29m / 1f)
• 30 non-regular gamblers (15m / 15f)
• Volunteer sample
• Fully in-formed consent

Method 

• Quasi
• IV- regular / non-regular gamblers

Qualitative DV's:

• Cognitive abilities (thinking aloud technique)
• Perception of skill ( post experiemtn interview)

Quantitative DV's

• total number of plays
• total minuntes of play
• play stake
• end stake
• total number of wins in session 
• win rate (time between wins)
• win rate (plays between wins)

• Each particpant given £3
• Objective: stay on machine for 60 minutes 
• Could keep wining or carry on gambling 
• same machine
• randoma allocation to each condition
• recordings all transcribed within 24 hours

Results 

Conclusions 

Regular gamblers:

• more skillfull
• believe they are more skilled
• Know they will loose, so they play with money rather than for money 
• More irrational vocalizations

Strength

• Standardized (same machine + same instructions) 
• Standardized = increased replicability 
• High ecologicla validity 

Weaknesses 

• Low inter-rater reliability 
• sample bias = only 1 female + only young participants 
• ethical issues (cause stress)
• demand characteristics (thinking aloud group) 
• social desiribility bias with regular gamblers in thinking aloud condition 

Uses: May help in rehabilitation of pathological gamblers through cognitive behaviour modification