Speed-accuracy tradeoff in decision-making performance among pathological gamblers.
BACKGROUND
Pathological gambling is classified as an impulse control disorder in the DSM-IV-TR; however, few studies have investigated the relationship between gambling behavior and impulsive decision-making in time-non-limited situations.


METHODS
The subjects performed the Matching Familiar Figures Test (MFFT). The MFFT investigated the reflection-impulsivity dimension in pathological gamblers (n = 82) and demographically matched healthy subjects (n = 82).


RESULTS
Our study demonstrated that pathological gamblers had a significantly higher rate of errors than healthy controls (p = 0.01) but were not different in terms of response time (p = 0.49). We found a similar power of correlation between the number of errors and response time in both pathological gamblers and controls. We may conclude that impaired performance of our pathological gamblers as compared to controls in a situation without time limit pressure cannot be explained by a trade-off of greater speed at the cost of less accuracy.


CONCLUSIONS
The results of our study showed that pathological gamblers tend to make more errors but do not exhibit quicker responses as compared to the control group. Diminished MFFT performance in pathological gamblers as compared to controls supports findings of previous studies which show that pathological gamblers have impaired decision-making. Further controlled studies with a larger sample size which examine MFFT performance in pathological gamblers are necessary to confirm our results.
Kertzman
Semion
S
The Rehovot Community Mental Health and Rehabilitation Clinic affiliated to Be'er Ya'akov-Ness Ziona Medical Complex, Sackler Faculty of Medicine, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel. kertzman@animascan.com
Vainder
Michael
M
Vishne
Tali
T
Aizer
Anat
A
Kotler
Moshe
M
Dannon
Pinhas N
PN
D000328:Adult; D003657:Decision Making / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D005715:Gambling / Q000523:psychology*; D006801:Humans; D007175:Impulsive Behavior / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000523:psychology; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010775:Photic Stimulation / Q000379:methods; D011597:Psychomotor Performance / Q000502:physiology*; D011930:Reaction Time / Q000502:physiology*