Implications of Derived Rule Following of Roulette Gambling for Clinical Practice

Abstract

Problem gambling is a global concern, and behavior analytic attention has increasingly focused on reasons for why problem gambling occurs and conditions under which it is maintained. However, limited knowledge currently exists on the process to which self-generated rules maintain gambling behaviors. Therefore, the current study assessed six recreational gamblers on a roulette game before and after discrimination training to establish a self-rule to wager on red or black. Following discrimination training, all six participants altered their response allocation among red or black and consistently responded according to the newly derived selfrule. Results maintained during 1-week follow-up sessions across all participants. Implications for clinical application of self-awareness and self-generated rule following are discussed.Implications for practice • Demonstration of how stimuli such as color can alter gambling behavior• Procedures to assist clients with changing self-rules about gambling behavior• Using self-generated rule formulation for more contextually appropriate target behaviors• Highlights how self-generated rules can be altered to change clinical target behaviors Keywords Gambling . Rule-governed behavior . Self-awarness . Behavior analysis Behavior analysis has been applied across a range of socially significant behaviors, from disruptive classroom behaviors to medication compliance and recycling. One area of recent focus is problem gambling ( While behavior analytic attention on problem gambling is growing (e.g., Witts 2013), limited knowledge currently exists on how problem gambling is established or the process to which verbal behavior in the form of self-rules is developed and subsequently maintained. Wilson and Dixon (2014) demonstrated self-tacting and subsequent self-rule following of recreational gamblers' preferences for concurrently available coin options on a slot machine. Six gamblers were asked to (a) tact arbitrary stimuli posted on the slot machine by completing fill-in-the-blank and multiple-choice assessments;( b) wager red or silver coins on a slot machine, which had no impact on the contingencies of the game; and (c) complete a conditional discrimination training procedure to establish a three, threemember equivalence class (A1-B1-C1; A2-B2-C2; and A3-B3-C3), where the C stimuli were presented as the words "play," "red," or "silver" and "coins". Following training, transitive relationships emerged between stimulus sets A and C, as all six participants correctly tacted the rule "play red/silver coins," while five participants altered response allocation to the color coin as indicated by stimulus C2 (e.g., red or silver).Although Wilson and Dixon provided empirical support regarding the development of self-tacting, future research in this area is warranted. First, replication of the effect demonstrated by Wilson and Dixon is needed. Second, the extent to

Neurological evidence of acceptance and commitment therapy effectiveness in college-age gamblers

“…Over the past decade a number of studies on gambling have demonstrated that when the contingencies remain the same on various gambling options, certain learning histories may transfer or transform the participant's responding into novel situations and impact wagering, persistence or both (e.g., Dixon, Bihler, & Nastally, 2011;Dixon, Nastally, Jackson, & Habib, 2009;Dixon, Wilson, & Whiting, 2012;Hoon, Dymond, Jackson, & Dixon, 2008;Zlomke & Dixon, 2006). Relational responding and self-generated rule-following (Wilson & Dixon, 2015;Wilson & Grant, 2015) have been shown to impact response allocation across games of chance with equal pay out rates.…”

Symbolic generalization of the near-miss in simulated slot-machine gambling.

“…The relevance of derived relational responding processes like symbolic generalization for gambling research stems from the observation that an outcome paired with one member of a stimulus relation readily emerges for other, indirectly related members, without further training (Wilson & Grant, 2015). That is, using the nomenclature described above, if X is paired with, or becomes discriminative for, a winning outcome on a slot machine, then presentations of Y may also evoke respondent win-related behavior and promote positive self-reports.…”