Murch W Spencer, Ferrari Mario A, McDonald Brooke M, Clark Luke
Centre for Gambling Research at UBC, Department of Psychology, The University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada.
Faculty of Medicine, The University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada.
Front Psychol. 2020 Feb 26;11:300. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2020.00300. eCollection 2020.
Flow activities (e.g. sports and gaming) have been associated with positive affect and prolonged engagement. In the gambling field, modern electronic gaming machines (EGMs, including modern slot machines) have drawn concern as a potentially flow-inducing activity that may be associated with gambling-related harms. Current research has heavily relied on self-reported flow, and further insights may be afforded by physiological methods. We present data from three separate experiments in which self-reported gambling flow and cardiac pre-ejection period (PEP; a measure of sympathetic nervous system arousal) were examined. Male undergraduate participants gambled on a genuine EGM in a laboratory setting for a period of at least 15 min, and completed the Flow subscale of the game experience questionnaire (GEQ). Aggregated data were analyzed using multilevel regression. Although EGM gambling was not associated with significant changes in PEP across participants, we found that self-reported flow states were associated with significant decreases in PEP during the first five minutes of EGM use. Thus, participants who experienced flow showed a greater sympathetic nervous system response to the onset of gambling. Though these effects were consistent in experiments 1 and 2, in experiment 3 the effect was inverted during the same time window. We conclude that flow during EGM gambling appears to be associated with early changes in sympathetic nervous system activity, but stress that more research is needed to characterize boundary conditions and moderating factors.
心流活动（如运动和游戏）与积极情绪和长时间参与相关。在赌博领域，现代电子游戏机（EGM，包括现代老虎机）作为一种可能诱发心流的活动引发了关注，这种活动可能与赌博相关危害有关。当前的研究严重依赖自我报告的心流体验，而生理方法可能会提供更多见解。我们展示了来自三个独立实验的数据，这些实验考察了自我报告的赌博心流和心脏射血前期（PEP；一种交感神经系统唤醒的测量指标）。男性本科参与者在实验室环境中在一台真正的电子游戏机上赌博至少15分钟，并完成了游戏体验问卷（GEQ）的心流子量表。使用多层回归分析汇总数据。尽管电子游戏机赌博在参与者中与PEP的显著变化无关，但我们发现自我报告的心流状态与电子游戏机使用的前五分钟内PEP的显著下降有关。因此，体验到心流的参与者对赌博开始表现出更大的交感神经系统反应。尽管这些效应在实验1和实验2中是一致的，但在实验3中，在同一时间窗口内效应发生了反转。我们得出结论，电子游戏机赌博期间的心流似乎与交感神经系统活动的早期变化有关，但强调需要更多研究来确定边界条件和调节因素。
