Content area
Abstract
Currently, problem gambling is classified as an impulse control disorder (American Psychiatric Association, 2000). Greater understanding of problem gambling's underlying pathologies is needed. The present study is an attempt to elucidate motor and cognitive disinhibition in problem gambling by applying two theoretical approaches researched with other "impulsive" groups. These theoretical approaches are the passive-avoidance learning paradigm (e.g., Newman 1987), derived mostly from the study of psychopaths, and the stop-signal paradigm (Logan & Cowan, 1984), which comes from the study of attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder.
The study compares 30 problem gamblers (PGs) to 37 controls (CTRLs) on two computer tasks of the above paradigms. Results on the stop-signal task show that PGs are slower in stopping their responses than CTRLs ( p = 0.06, two-tailed), with no difference between the groups in 'go' reaction times. On the passive-avoidance task, a medium effect size (Cohen's d = 0.37) suggests that PGs are more likely to make passive-avoidance errors, and thus to exhibit learning deficits, than CTRLs when faced with both reward and punishment.
