Underlying cognitions in gambling behavior among university students

Differences in underlying cognitions across gambling tasks were examined. T he South Oaks Gambling Screen, a measure of pathological gambling, was comp leted by 60 undergraduate students. They also played computer-simulated gam es of roulette, slots, and blackjack in a laboratory setting. The "think-al oud" procedure was used to reveal subjects' cognitions, which were subseque ntly categorized into cognitive heuristics. Individuals were classified as social gamblers with and without problems and probable pathological gambler s. Results reveal that certain heuristics, including references to an expla nation of their losses, hindsight bias, personification of the dealer/machi ne, chasing behavior, and past experiences were most frequently endorsed by probable pathological gamblers. Empirical evidence supports that probable pathological gamblers are qualitatively different from social gamblers in t heir emitted verbalized cognitive heuristics.