Slot Machine Arousal

A narrow depression, groove, notch, slit, or aperture for receiving or admitting something, especially money or a letter. He dropped the coin in the slot of the machine. The program received a new time slot on the broadcasting schedule. A position or berth in an organization, such as a job or place on a committee. He volunteered to fill the vacant slot on the finance committee.

In our study of 117 individuals, both PRPs and force measures of reward reactivity were positively correlated with positive affect ratings, and both accounted for unique variance in those ratings when included in a multivariate framework with dark flow. However, unlike the positive arousal produced by wins on a slot machine, the arousal evoked by losses on a slot machine was not related to these affect ratings.

Although the arousal evoked by wins and losses on a slot machine differs from that produced by positive arousal, there are important similarities between them. For example, both produce auditory and visual feedback, with larger wins generating more extensive feedback. Furthermore, both the PRPs and force measure of reward reactivity were unrelated to problem gambling or depression scores, indicating that they do not reflect negative underlying motivations for playing slots. This suggests that arousal may be one of several mechanisms through which people enjoy the escapism offered by slots. For example, the continuous nature of slots play and their attention-capturing, intermittent rewards can divert people’s thoughts away from traumatic or stressful experiences (Abbot & Volberg, 1996; Getty, Watson, & Frisch, 2000). In addition, players may enjoy the escapism offered by a game with a theme that is familiar to them, such as a movie, book, or rock band.

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Cape Town, South Africa