The Role of Negative and Positive Urgency in the Relationship Between Craving and Symptoms of Problematic Video Game Use

Spanish Research Agency (Agencia Española de Investigación),Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation (Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación; MCIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033/)PID2020- 116535 GB-I00.Grant (FPU21/00462, Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación)Grant (PRE2018-085150, Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades

The associative learning roots of affect-driven impulsivity and its role in problem gambling: A replication attempt and extension of Quintero et al. (2020)

Background and aims: Negative/positive urgency (NU/PU) refers to the proneness to act rashly under negative/positive emotions. These traits are proxies to generalized emotion dysregulation, and are wellestablished predictors of gambling-related problems. We aimed to replicate a previous work (Quintero et al., 2020) showing NU to be related to faulty extinction of conditioned stimuli in an emotional conditioning task, to extend these findings to PU, and to clarify the role of urgency in the development of gambling-related craving and problems. Methods: 81 gamblers performed an acquisition-extinction task in which neutral, disgusting, erotic and gambling-related images were used as unconditioned stimuli (US), and color patches as conditioned stimuli (CS). Trial-by-trial predictive responses were analyzed using generalized linear mixed-effects models (GLME). Results: PU was more strongly related than NU to craving and severity of gambling problems. PU did not influence acquisition in the associative task, whereas NU slightly slowed it. Extinction was hampered in individuals with high PU, and a follow-up analysis showed this effect to depend on relative preference for skill-based and casino games. Discussion and conclusions: Results suggest that resistance to extinction of emotionally conditioned cues is a sign of malfunctioning emotion regulation in problematic gambling. In our work, the key effect was driven by PU (instead of NU), and gambling craving and symptoms were also more closely predicted by it. Future research should compare the involvement of PU and NU in emotion regulation and gambling problems, for gamblers with preference for different gambling modalities (e.g., pure chance vs skill games)Spanish Government PSI2017-85488-PSpanish Government (Convocatoria 2017 de Proyectos ID de Excelencia, Spain)Spanish Government (Fondo Europeo de Desarrollo Regional, FEDER, European Union)Spanish Government (Agencia Espanola de Investigacion, Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovacion) (MCIN/AEI) PID2020-116535 GB-I00Spanish Government PRE2018-08515

Hazard Perception and Prediction test for walking, riding a bike and driving a car: Understanding of the global traffic situation

To “put oneself in the place of other road users” may improve understanding of the global traffic situation. It should be useful enabling drivers to anticipate and detect obstacles in time to prevent accidents to other road users, especially those most vulnerable. We created a pioneering Hazard Perception and Prediction test to explore this skill in different road users (pedestrians, cyclists and drivers), with videos recorded in naturalistic scenarios: walking, riding a bicycle and driving a car. There were 79 participants (30 pedestrians, 14 cyclists, 13 novice drivers and 22 experienced drivers). Sixty videos of hazardous traffic situations were presented, divided into 2 blocks of 30 videos each: 10 walking, 10 riding a bicycle, 10 driving a car. In each situation presented, we evaluated the performance of the participants carrying out the task of predicting the hazard and estimating the risk. In the second block, after they had carried out the task, we gave them feedback on their performance and let them see the whole video (i.e., checking what happened next). The results showed that the holistic test had acceptable psychometric properties (Cronbach’s alpha = .846). The test was able to discriminate between the different conditions manipulated: a) between traffic hazards recorded from different perspectives: walking, riding a bicycle and driving a car; b) between participants with different user profiles: pedestrians, cyclists and drivers; c) between the two test blocks: the first evaluation only and the second combining evaluation with this complex intervention. We found modal bias effects in both Hazard Perception and Prediction; and in Risk Estimation.State Research Agency (SRA)European Regional Fund (ERDF

The Interrelation Between Emotional Impulsivity, Craving, and Symptoms Severity in Behavioral Addictions and Related Conditions: a Theory‑Driven Systematic Review

Purpose of Review Here, we systematically review all available evidence on the triadic relationship between positive and negative urgency, craving, and severity of symptoms of candidate behavioral addictions. Recent Findings Current theoretical models attribute a central importance to craving in the chronification and prognosis of behavioral addictions and other problematic non-substance-related behavioral patterns. Craving, in turn, has been convincingly shown to be an affect-laden state, and its control can be conceptualized as partially resulting from emotion regulation mechanisms. However, some gaps remain: first, there is no consensus on the predominantly appetitive or aversive nature of craving; and, second, although positive and negative urgency have been proposed as proxies to incidental emotion regulation mechanisms, their direct or indirect role in craving regulation and severity of problematic behaviors is still poorly known. Summary According to our results, craving emerges as a central construct, partially resulting from emotion dysregulation as assessed by urgency. The preponderance of positive urgency shown by most studies in this review also reinforces the view of positive emotions as a ‘trojan horse’ in addictive processes. Negative urgency, in turn, seems to be a complication factor that could underlie gambling addiction and other related mental health conditions. Most studies, however, are about gambling behavior, with the few studies in other domains precluding firm conclusions about the differences or similarities between them.Universidad de Granada/ CBUAR&D project (Proyecto I + D + i), funded by the Spanish Research Agency (Agencia Española de Investigación)Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation (Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación) (MCIN/AEI/https:// doi. org/ 10. 13039/ 50110 00110 33)PID2020-116535 GB-I00PRE2018-085150, Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades)Individual research grant (PRE2021-100665, Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación)Individual research grant (FPU21/00462, Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación)

Gambling-Specific Cognitions Are Not Associated With Either Abstract or Probabilistic Reasoning: A Dual Frequentist-Bayesian Analysis of Individuals With and Without Gambling Disorder

Background: Distorted gambling-related cognitions are tightly related to gambling problems, and are one of the main targets of treatment for disordered gambling, but their etiology remains uncertain. Although folk wisdom and some theoretical approaches have linked them to lower domain-general reasoning abilities, evidence regarding that relationship remains unconvincing. Method: In the present cross-sectional study, the relationship between probabilistic/abstract reasoning, as measured by the Berlin Numeracy Test (BNT), and the Matrices Test, respectively, and the five dimensions of the Gambling-Related Cognitions Scale (GRCS), was tested in a sample of 77 patients with gambling disorder and 58 individuals without gambling problems. Results and interpretation: Neither BNT nor matrices scores were significantly related to gambling-related cognitions, according to frequentist (MANCOVA/ANCOVA) analyses, performed both considering and disregarding group (patients, non-patients) in the models. Correlation Bayesian analyses (bidirectional BF10) largely supported the null hypothesis, i.e., the absence of relationships between the measures of interest. This pattern or results reinforces the idea that distorted cognitions do not originate in a general lack of understanding of probability or low fluid intelligence, but probably result from motivated reasoning.Spanish Government (Ministerio de Economia y Competitividad) PSI201345055-P PSI2017-85488-PSpanish Government (Secretaria de Estado de Investigacion, Desarrollo e Innovacion) PSI201345055-P PSI2017-85488-PSpanish Government (Fondo Europeo de Desarrollo Regional, FEDER, European Union) PSI201345055-P PSI2017-85488-PSpanish Government (Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovacion y Universidades) PRE2018-085150Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation post-doctoral contract (Juan de la Cierva) FJC2018036047-

How to pin a compulsive behavior down: A systematic review and conceptual synthesis of compulsivity-sensitive items in measures of behavioral addiction

Acknowledgements We would like to thank the Spanish the Spanish National Research Agency (Agencia Estatal de Investigación), Ministry of Science and Innovation (Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación), for funding the project to which this study belongs. We would like to thank Sergio Fernández- Artamendi (Loyola University, Seville, Spain), and Damien Brevers and Pierre Maurage (Université Catholique de Louvain, Louvain La Neuve, Belgium) for their assistance as external experts for inter-judges agreement assessment, and for identification of delimitation problems. We would also like to thank Sumara Suzzette Prince Davidson for her assistance in translating Spanish items into English for external evaluation.Funding The roles of the first, second, and third authors in this publication are part of a R&D project (proyecto I + D + I), funded by the Spanish Research Agency (Agencia Española de Investigación), Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation (Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación) (MCIN/ AEI/10.13039/501100011033/), with reference PID2020-116535 GBI00, and by a predoctoral fellowship (PRE2018-085150) from the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation to IM.Experimental models identify the transition from choice to compulsivity as the main mechanism underlying addiction. In behavioral addictions research, however, the adjective compulsive is used to describe virtually any kind of excessive or dysregulated behavior, which hinders the connection between experimental and clinical models. In this systematic review, we adopted a preliminary definition of compulsive behavior based on previous theoretical work. Subsequently, a systematic review following PRISMA guidelines was conducted (a) to identify the validated instruments, currently used in behavioral addictions research, that include items that are sensitive (intendedly or not) to compulsivity, and (b) to categorize those items into differentiable operationalizations of compulsivity. Six operationalizations of compulsivity emerged from item content analysis: 1. Automatic or habitual behavior occurring in absence of conscious instrumental goals; 2. Behavior insensitive to negative consequences despite conscious awareness of them; 3. Overwhelming urge or desire that impels the individual to initiate the activity and jeopardizes control attempts; 4. Bingeing, or inability to stop or interrupt the activity once initiated, resulting in an episode substantially longer or more intense than intended; 5. Attentional capture and cognitive hijacking; and 6. Inflexible rules, stereotyped behaviors, and rituals related to task completion or execution. Subsequently, a list of 15 representative items per operationalization was elaborated for independent assessment and identification of delimitation problems. A high degree of agreement was reached in assessing them as instantiating compulsivity, as well as in their assignment to the corresponding categories. However, many of them were also considered overinclusive, i.e., uncapable of distinguishing compulsivity from valuebased momentary choice. To increase their discriminative value, items in future compulsivity scales should be refined to explicitly mention disconnection between behavior and declarative goals. Further research on factorial structure of a pool of items derived from these operational definitions is warranted. Such a factorial structure could be used as an intermediate link between specific behavioral items and explanatory psychobiological, learning, and cognitive mechanisms.Agencia Española de InvestigaciónLoyola UniversitySpanish Research AgencySpanish the Spanish National Research AgencyMinisterio de Ciencia e Innovación MCIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033, PID2020-116535 GB-I00, PRE2018-085150Agencia Estatal de Investigació