COGNITIVE THEORY

• Cognitive bias

  A distortion of attention, memory and thinking that arises because of how we process information about the world, especially when we do it quickly
• People who take up gambling usually expect the benefits will outweigh the costs. But some overestimate the benefits and underestimate the costs
• They may also have unrealistic expectations about how gambling will help them cope with their emotions. For example, they expect that gambling will boost their positive moods (provide excitement) and reduce their negative moods (alleviate stress)
• Categories of cognitive biases in gambling

  • Skill and judgement - gamblers have an illusion of control which means they overestimate their ability to influence a random event
  • Personal traits/ritual behaviours - gamblers believe that they have a greater probability of winning because they are especially lucky or they engaged in some superstitious behaviour
  • Selective recall - gamblers can remember the details of their wins but they forget, ignore or minimise their losses
  • Faulty perceptions - addicted gamblers have distorted views about the operation of chance, the belief that a losing streak cannot last and must always be followed by a win
• Relapse happens because the person has a biased belief that they are not capable of abstaining permanently, so they expect to gamble again
• Griffiths (1994) found that regular gamblers made almost six times as many irrational verbalisations than the occasional gamblers (14% compared with 2.5%)
• (Griffiths) Regular gamblers were particularly prone to an illusion of control. They both overestimated the amount of skill required to win on slot machines and considered themselves to be especially skilled at doing so