Lower caution, not inhibitory control, predicts gambling severity – a Registered Report.

Models of gambling disorder, along with other addiction-related conditions, identify impulsive traits as a key component to developing challenging behaviors. This is supported by empirical findings indicating that individuals with gambling disorder exhibit poorer response inhibition, a facet of impu...

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Published in:Addiction Research & Theory Vol. 34; no. 2; pp. 175 - 187
Main Authors: Oxtoby, Michelle C., Pennington, Charlotte R., Tunney, Richard J., Hedge, Craig
Format: research tables/charts Journal Article
Published: Taylor & Francis Ltd Apr2026
Online Access:View this record in EBSCOhost
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      dt: Apr2026
      vid: 34
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      pub: Taylor & Francis Ltd
      place: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
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        10.1080/16066359.2025.2549295
        192503897
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        atl: Lower caution, not inhibitory control, predicts gambling severity – a Registered Report.
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        au:
          Oxtoby, Michelle C.
          Pennington, Charlotte R.
          Tunney, Richard J.
          Hedge, Craig
        affil: School of Psychology, College of Health and Life Sciences, Aston University, Birmingham, UK
      sug:
        subj:
          Cognition Evaluation
          Processing Speed Evaluation
          Gambling
          Task Performance and Analysis
          Human
          Female
          Male
          Adult
          Questionnaires
          Power Analysis
          Psychological Tests
          Attention
          Motor Skills
          Coefficient alpha
          Factor Analysis
          Relative Risk
          Linear Regression
          Spearman's Rank Correlation Coefficient
          T-Tests
          Data Analysis Software
          Descriptive Statistics
          Funding Source
          Adult: 19-44 years
          Female
          Male
      ab: Models of gambling disorder, along with other addiction-related conditions, identify impulsive traits as a key component to developing challenging behaviors. This is supported by empirical findings indicating that individuals with gambling disorder exhibit poorer response inhibition, a facet of impulsivity. However, studies on individual differences in inhibition often find weak correlations between different inhibition tasks, suggesting that cognitive processes other than a general inhibitory control ability may contribute to task performance, and by extension, to gambling. The current study applied cognitive modeling to dissociate the cognitive processes involved in response inhibition tasks and examined which cognitive processes are predictive of gambling severity. A total of 422 participants completed the Stroop, Go/No-go and Stop-Signal tasks alongside the Problem Gambling Severity Index (PGSI) questionnaire. The drift diffusion model was used to decompose traditional task performance data into parameters which were then grouped into four distinct cognitive processes: inhibitory control, general processing speed, response caution, and perceptual/motor speed. Preregistered regression analyses indicate that lower caution, rather than inhibition, is associated with higher gambling severity. Whereas previous research had focused on inhibitory control as a risk factor for gambling behaviors, as well as a target for potential interventions (e.g. training apps), these findings suggest rather that the strategic processes underlying decision making – caution – are important to consider.
      pubtype: Academic Journal
      doctype:
        research
        tables/charts
        Journal Article
      ougenre: Article
    language: English
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