Near-misses in slot machines resemble jackpot wins but fall just short. Previous research has demonstrated that near-misses are behaviorally reinforcing despite the absence of monetary reward. We assessed the hedonic properties of near-misses by measuring the time between outcome delivery and the initiation of the next spin-the post-reinforcement pause (PRP) and skin conductance responses (SCRs) for losses, near-misses, and a range of wins (5, 15, 25, 50 or 250 credits) while participants (N = 122) played a slot machine simulator. PRPs and SCRs were compared for 40 low frequency and 22 high frequency slots players who were non-problem gamblers, 37 at risk players, and 23 problem gamblers. For winning outcomes, PRPs and SCRs tracked monotonically with win size such that progressively larger wins were associated with progressively larger PRPs and SCRs. Near-misses with jackpot symbols landing on the first two reels had significantly larger SCRs than regular losses, and other types of near misses. Crucially, PRPs for this kind of near-miss were significantly smaller than all wins, and when non-parametric statistics were used, significantly smaller than regular losses. This pattern of large SCRs and small PRPs suggest that these are highly frustrating outcomes that stimulate appetitive components of the reward system to promote continued gambling.

No abstract

Integrating audiovisual cues for simple events is affected when sources are separated in space and time. By contrast, audiovisual perception of speech appears resilient when either spatial or temporal disparities exist. We investigated whether speech perception is sensitive to the combination of spatial and temporal inconsistencies. Participants heard the bisyllable /aba/ while seeing a face produce the incongruent bisyllable /ava/. We tested the level of visual influence over auditory perception when the sound was asynchronous with respect to facial motion (from -360 to +360 ms) and emanated from five locations equidistant to the participant. Although an interaction was observed, it was not related to participants' perception of synchrony, nor did it indicate a linear relationship between the effect of spatial and temporal discrepancies. We conclude that either the complexity of the signal or the nature of the task reduces reliance on spatial and temporal contiguity for audiovisual speech perception.

No abstract

No abstract