Effects of Audiovisual Cues on Game Immersion during Simulated Slot Machine Gambling
Abstract
Modern slot machines can create immersive experiences for gamblers. Design features, including audiovisual cues, may influence these experiences, potentially interacting with personal risk factors for disordered gambling. According to the incentive salience hypothesis of addiction, reward-paired audiovisual cues strongly motivate behavior. This study manipulated audiovisual cues during simulated slot machine gambling to test the effects of varying intensities on self-reported immersion. Undergraduate students (n = 156) played a realistic slot machine simulation within an authentic cabinet. They experienced three intensities of audiovisual cues: Minus, Intermediate, and Plus. Participants completed self-report questionnaires, including a retrospective game immersion questionnaire. The pre-registered hypothesis was partially supported: the Intermediate cue condition was associated with greater game immersion than the Minus condition (p < 0.05). Exploratory models revealed higher total scores on the depression, anxiety, and stress scale predicted greater immersion in the Intermediate condition (p < 0.001). A Cue x Gender interaction was driven by greater immersion in the Intermediate cue condition among women, but not men (p < 0.05). Problem gambling severity predicted greater immersion across all models (p < 0.001). Audiovisual cues influenced immersion in slot machine gambling, supporting regulatory attention to audiovisual features as an engineered product aspect. Contrary…
Read the paper
Related studies
- The neurocircuitry of addiction: an overview
- Gender Differences in Human Brain: A Review
- Stratified medicine for mental disorders
- The neurobiology of drug addiction: cross-species insights into the dysfunction and recovery of the prefrontal cortex
- Annual Research Review: DNA methylation as a mediator in the association between risk exposure and child and adolescent psychopathology
- Schizophrenia: The new etiological synthesis
Go deeper in Evidence Hub
Evidence Hub adds a study data sheet (design, sample size, evidence level, key numbers), an AI summary and a chat grounded in the paper's text.