title: Nonmonetary Decision-Making Indices Discriminate Between Different Behavioral Components of Gambling.
abstract: Recent research has proposed that altered reward and punishment sensitivity, heightened impulsivity, and faulty dynamic decision-making are at the core of disordered gambling. However, each of these traits and cognitive aspects dimensionally vary in the normal population, such that the link between individual differences in these dimensions and gambling use can be ultimately informative to explain disordered gambling. The main aim of the present study was to investigate the contribution of such decision-making-related indices to gambling use parameters in a community sample of college students. Assessment included punishment and reward sensitivity (as measured by the shortened Sensitivity to Punishment and Sensitivity to Reward Questionnaire), impulsivity (as measured by the UPPS-P model and a motor inhibition Go/No-go task), and dynamic decision-making [as measured by the probabilistic reversal learning task (PRLT)]. A structured interview was conducted to explore quantitative aspects of the participants gambling habits (gambling presence, gambling frequency, and average amount of money spent in gambling per unit of time). Our results showed the existence of a decision-making profile of gambling, as it naturally occurs in college students, in which sensation seeking is directly and specifically related to gambling presence (gambling, or not gambling at all), punishment sensitivity is inversely related to gambling frequency, and inflexibility in the PRLT specifically predicts the losses accrued because of gambling. These results are compatible with the idea that sensation seeking and punishment insensitivity could increase exposure to gambling activities, whereas reversal learning inflexibility, in people who already gamble, could boost the risk to accumulate losses.
authors.affiliation: Experimental Psychology Department; Mind, Brain, and Behavior Research Center, University of Granada, 18071, Granada, Spain. jfnavas@ugr.es.
authors.forename: Juan F
authors.initials: JF
authors.lastname: Navas
authors.affiliation: Experimental Psychology Department; Mind, Brain, and Behavior Research Center, University of Granada, 18071, Granada, Spain.
authors.forename: Ana
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Torres
authors.affiliation: Personality, Assessment, and Psychological Treatment Department, University of Granada, Granada, Spain.
authors.forename: Raquel
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Vilar
authors.affiliation: Personality, Assessment, and Psychological Treatment Department, University of Granada, Granada, Spain.|Monash University, Melbourne, Australia.
authors.forename: Antonio
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Verdejo-García
authors.affiliation: Experimental Psychology Department; Mind, Brain, and Behavior Research Center, University of Granada, 18071, Granada, Spain.
authors.forename: Andrés
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Catena
authors.affiliation: Experimental Psychology Department; Mind, Brain, and Behavior Research Center, University of Granada, 18071, Granada, Spain.
authors.forename: José C
authors.initials: JC
authors.lastname: Perales
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D003657:Decision Making; D005260:Female; D005715:Gambling / Q000523:psychology*; D006801:Humans; D007175:Impulsive Behavior; D007266:Inhibition, Psychological; D008297:Male; D011678:Punishment / Q000523:psychology*; D012201:Reward; D013030:Spain; D013334:Students / Q000523:psychology*; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Decision-making; Gambling; Impulsivity; Reversal learning; Reward and punishment sensitivity