Digital Gambling: The Coincidence of Desire and Design

Schüll, Natasha Dow

doi:10.1177/0002716204270435

Cited by 87 publications

(57 citation statements)

References 3 publications

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“…Like the corporeal schema, the integrated resource is prereflective-i.e., not explicitly attended or reflected upon (even though it could become so with a shift of attention). Schull's (2005) ethnographic study of gambling machines illustrates well how this form of entrenchment can characterize not just sensorimotor but also motivational-affective states. The gaming industry designs these machines to accelerate the customers' rate of play and extend its duration as much as possible.…”

Section: Individualization and Entrenchmentmentioning

confidence: 98%

Scaffoldings of the affective mind

Colombetti¹,

Krueger

2014

Philosophical Psychology

230

184

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In this paper we adopt Sterelny's (2010) framework of the scaffolded mind, and its related dimensional approach, to highlight the many ways in which human affectivity (and not just cognition) is environmentally supported. After discussing the relationship between the scaffolded-mind view and related frameworks, such as the "extended-mind" view, we illustrate the many ways in which our affective states are environmentally supported by items of material culture, other people, and their interplay. To do so, we draw on empirical evidence from various disciplines (sociology, ethnography, developmental psychology), and develop phenomenological considerations to distinguish different ways in which we experience the world in affectivity. Sterelny's Scaffolded MindSterelny (2010) distinguishes various dimensions of what he calls the scaffolded mind. This term refers to the idea that the mind is "environmentally supported," more specifically that 2 cognitive agents engineer their environment to sustain as well as amplify their cognitive abilities. Sterelny in particular draws on the niche-construction model (Odling-Smee et al., 2003) to characterize the scaffolded mind. According to this model, organisms carve out environmental niches to which they then adapt; in this way, processes of manipulation of the environment feed back onto the manipulating organism and transform it, often increasing the organism's chances of survival. A classic example of niche construction is the dam-building activity of the beaver, which changes the environment where the beaver lives, which in turn affects the beaver's behavior and that of its progeny.Niche construction comes in different varieties (Sterelny, 2003, chapter 8). For example, organisms physically modify their habitat, constructing structures (e.g. shelters, nests, dams) that modify how the environment impacts on them. Social organization is also a form of niche construction, for it creates a certain set of conditions that change the selective landscape. What Sterelny (2010) calls the scaffolded mind refers to processes of epistemic niche construction characteristic of human agency, consisting primarily in making cognitive tools and assembling informational resources to scaffold intelligent action: written language, mathematical notations, calendars, watches, telescopes, computers, etc. Moreover, in the human case, environmental scaffolding exerts its influence across generations in a particularly profound way, via the transmission of ecological and technical expertise (what Sterenly calls "intergenerational social learning"; see also Sterelny, 2012).Sterelny introduces the scaffolded-mind view as an alternative to the extended-mind view (ExM henceforth), first formulated by Clark & Chalmers (1998) and further elaborated by Andy Clark and others (e.g., Clark, 2008;Menary, 2010b). According to ExM, sometimes the material vehicles that realize the mind encompass not just neural or even bodily activity, but also that of the material environment. Sterelny does not reject ExM, b...

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Section: Individualization and Entrenchmentmentioning

confidence: 98%

Scaffoldings of the affective mind

Colombetti¹,

Krueger

2014

Philosophical Psychology

230

184

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…When describing their experience of during-play urge, poker-machine problem-gamblers have reported experiencing a drug-like ''high'' (Griffiths 1996;Oakes et al 2012); that is, a strongly desired trance-like or dissociative state known by gamblers as the ''zone'' (Schull 2005). Due to lack of research in this area, the exact nature of what constitutes an altered state of consciousness requires further conceptual clarification, especially in regards to whether altered state of consciousness is a uni-dimensional or a multi-dimensional construct.…”

Section: Urge-related Altered State Of Consciousnessmentioning

confidence: 99%

Cue-Reactive Altered State of Consciousness Mediates the Relationship Between Problem-Gambling Severity and Cue-Reactive Urge in Poker-Machine Gamblers

Tricker¹,

Rock²,

Clark³

2015

J Gambl Stud

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In order to enhance our understanding of the nature of poker-machine problem-gambling, a community sample of 37 poker-machine gamblers (M age = 32 years, M PGSI = 5; PGSI = Problem Gambling Severity Index) were assessed for urge to gamble (responses on a visual analogue scale) and altered state of consciousness (assessed by the Altered State of Awareness dimension of the Phenomenology of Consciousness Inventory) at baseline, after a neutral cue, and after a gambling cue. It was found that (a) problem-gambling severity (PGSI score) predicted increase in urge (from neutral cue to gambling cue, controlling for baseline; sr (2) = .19, p = .006) and increase in altered state of consciousness (from neutral cue to gambling cue, controlling for baseline; sr (2) = .57, p < .001), and (b) increase in altered state of consciousness (from neutral cue to gambling cue) mediated the relationship between problem-gambling severity and increase in urge (from neutral cue to gambling cue; κ(2) = .40, 99 % CI [.08, .71]). These findings suggest that cue-reactive altered state of consciousness is an important component of cue-reactive urge in poker-machine problem-gamblers.

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“…Not only does pokie gambling occupy 77 per cent of casino floor space, it generates over double the combined revenue of other gambling forms and, in some venues frequented mostly by locals, generates up to 89 per cent of revenue. 36 Schull argues that the current generation of pokies has departed from its predecessors as technologically savvy designers have both responded to and cultivated consumer demand for 'a dissociated subjective state that gamblers call the "zone" in which conventional spatial, bodily, monetary and temporal parameters are suspended'. 37 The result is a cultural technology that is increasingly attuned to individual consumers' preferences and rhythms up to the point where playing itself becomes unnecessary and total absorption in the machine's digital processes is accomplished.…”

Section: -The Pokie Lounge As a New Cultural Space In The Australian mentioning

confidence: 99%

On Blowing Up the Pokies: The Pokie Lounge as a Cultural Site of Neoliberal Governmentality in Australia

Nicoll

2011

CSR

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In 1999 The Whitlams, a popular ‘indie’ band named after a former Australian prime minister whose government was controversially sacked in 1975 by the Governor-General, released a single titled ‘Blow up the Pokies’. Written about a former band member’s fatal attraction to electronic gaming machines (henceforth referred to as ‘pokies’), the song was mixed by a top LA producer, a decision that its writer and The Whitlam’s front-man, Tim Freedman, describes as calculated to ‘get it on big, bombastic commercial radio’. The investment paid off and the song not only became a big hit for the band, it developed a legacy beyond the popular music scene, with Freedman invited to write the foreword of a ‘self-help manual for giving up gambling’ as well as appearing on public affairs television shows to discuss the issue of problem gambling. The lyrics of ‘Blow up the Pokies’ frame the central themes of this article: spaces, technologies and governmentality of gambling. It then explores what cultural articulations of resistance to the pokie lounge tell us about broader social and cultural dynamics of neoliberal governmentality in Australia.

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Digital Gambling: The Coincidence of Desire and Design

Cited by 87 publications

References 3 publications

Scaffoldings of the affective mind

Scaffoldings of the affective mind

Cue-Reactive Altered State of Consciousness Mediates the Relationship Between Problem-Gambling Severity and Cue-Reactive Urge in Poker-Machine Gamblers

On Blowing Up the Pokies: The Pokie Lounge as a Cultural Site of Neoliberal Governmentality in Australia

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