Dr Amanda Roberts
Amanda Roberts is a Professor of Psychology at the University of Lincoln, UK, with a PhD in Behavioural Neuroscience from Cardiff University and previous research and lectureship positions at UK academic institutions including Kings College London, The Institute of Psychiatry, Queen Mary University London, The Wolfson Institute, and UEL. She has numerous multidisciplinary national and international collaborations including an honorary research contract at the National Problem Gambling Clinic and a Research Fellowship at the Gambling Addictions Research Centre, AUT, NZ. Amanda’s research interests include the evaluation of gambling addiction treatment programmes both in the community and in UK prisons, and additional interests extend across topics that relate to gambling comorbidity, gambling in vulnerable populations, homelessness, women and gambling, and gambling and interpersonal violence.
Neurocognitive performance as a function of preferred form of gambling in treatment seeking gamblers
Presentation link: Neurocognitive performance as a function of preferred form of gambling in treatment seeking gamblers
Presentation audio: Neurocognitive performance as a function of preferred form of gambling in treatment seeking gamblers
It is well established that disordered gamblers exhibit performance deficits on impulsivity and decision-making tasks compared to healthy controls, however gamblers are not a homogenous group. Recent research has shown that the type of gambling that treatment seeking disordered gamblers engage in has changed over time, with some more becoming increasingly associated with harm. The most common form of gambling reported as problematic is Fixed Odds Betting Terminals (FOBTs). Recruiting gamblers from the National Problem Gambling Clinic, the current study sought to use a comprehensive battery of neurocognitive tasks to explore differences in decision making in treatment seeking gamblers as a function of preferred form of gambling. Using tasks including the Cambridge Gamble Task, the Stop Signal Task, a Perseverative Reversal Learning Task and a delay discounting task, task performance was compared between gamblers who stated FOBTs as a preferred form, and those who experienced harm through other forms of gambling. Results show significant differences between groups, indicating that decision-making strategies and cognitive flexibility in gamblers grouped by preferred form is an important source of heterogeneity in disordered gambling. Preferred form, approach to risk, impulsivity and decision-making should be considered when administering cognition-based treatments.
This study was funded by an MRC grant.