Abstract

Gambling is a field that harbors both harmless recreational activities and pathological varieties that may be considered an addictive disorder. It is also a field that deserves special interest from a learning theoretical perspective, since pathological gambling represents both a pure behavioral addiction involving no ingestion of substances and behavior that exhibits extreme resistance to extinction. As the field of applied psychology of learning, or behavior analysis, espouses a bottom-up approach, the basis of understanding begins in basic research on behavioral principles. This article provides a narrative review of the field of laboratory experiments conducted to disentangle the learning processes of gambling behavior. The purpose of this review is to give an overview of learning principles in gambling that has been demonstrated under lab conditions and that may be of importance in the development of clinical applications when gambling has become a problem. Several processes, like the importance of delay and probability discounting, reinforcement without actual winning, and rule governed behavior have been experimentally verified. The common denominator appears to be that they impede extinction. Other areas, especially Pavlovian conditioning, are scarce in the literature. Our recommendations for the future would be to study Pavlovian and instrumental conditioning in interaction. Treatment programs should profit from strategies that serve to enhance extinction learning. We also conclude that online gambling should provide a promising environment for controlled research on how to limit excessive gambling, provided that the gambling companies are interested in that.

摘要

赌博是一个既包含无害娱乐活动又包含可能被视为成瘾性疾病的病理变种的领域。从学习的理论角度来看，这也是一个值得特别关注的领域，因为病理性赌博既代表着不摄取物质的纯行为成瘾，又代表着对灭绝具有极端抵抗力的行为。随着学习心理学或行为分析的应用心理学领域开始采用自下而上的方法，理解的基础始于行为原理的基础研究。本文提供了对实验室实验领域的叙述性评论，以阐明赌博行为的学习过程。这篇综述的目的是概述在实验室条件下已证明的赌博学习原理，当赌博成为问题时，这可能对临床应用的开发很重要。已经通过实验验证了几个过程，例如延迟和概率折现的重要性，没有实际获胜的强化以及规则控制的行为。共同点似乎是它们阻止了灭绝。其他领域，特别是巴甫洛夫式条件，在文献中很少。我们对未来的建议是研究相互作用中的巴甫洛夫式和器乐式调理。治疗方案应从有助于灭绝学习的策略中受益。