Contrasting Mind-Wandering, (Dark) Flow, and Affect During Slot Machine Play and an Auditory Vigilance Task: Implications for Gambling to Escape

Slot machines are a pervasive form of gambling in North America. In Experiment 1 and 2, we assessed gamblers for mindfulness, gambling problems, depressive symptoms, and boredom proneness. In Experiment 1, participants played both a multiline and single-line slot machine simulator and were occasionally interrupted with thought probes to assess whether they were thinking about the game or something else. After playing each game, we retrospectively assessed dark flow and affect during play. The number of “on-game” reports during the multiline game were significantly higher than the single-line game. We also found significantly greater flow and lower negative affect during the multiline game than the single-line game. Using hierarchical multiple regression, we found that dark flow accounted for unique variance when predicting problem gambling severity (over and above depression, mindfulness, and boredom proneness). In Experiment 2, participants played a multiline slot machine simulator and completed an auditory vigilance task. Similar to Experiment 1, participants were occasionally interrupted with thought probes and retrospective flow and affect was assessed after completing each task. Players reported greater negative affect following the vigilance task (when compared to slots) and greater positive affect following slots (when compared to the vigilance task). We also found that those who scored higher in problem gambling were more likely to use deliberate mind-wandering during the vigilance task. Using hierarchical multiple regression, we found that the number of “deliberately mind-wandering” responses accounted for unique variance when predicting problem gambling severity (over and above depression, mindfulness, and boredom proneness)