International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, Dec 19, 2022
This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative... more This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY
The Covid-19 pandemic and subsequent national lockdowns resulted in drastic changes to the way th... more The Covid-19 pandemic and subsequent national lockdowns resulted in drastic changes to the way that higher education was delivered. A mixed-methods research study was conducted to explore university students’ perceptions of online learning during the 2020/21 academic year. Students from across all Welsh higher education institutions were invited to participate. First, a series of focus groups (n=13) were conducted to explore students’ experiences of online learning during the pandemic. Two were conducted in Welsh, the remaining eleven in English. Thematic analysis led researchers to develop eight key themes: Seeking the positives, Facilitators to learning, Barriers to learning, Lost sense of community, Let down by University, Workload, Assessment, and Health and well-being. These themes informed the design of a quantitative survey which was completed by 759 students. It was found that students were largely satisfied with the quality of online learning, however there were specific ch...
Background There is a need to improve retention and outcomes for treatment of problem gambling an... more Background There is a need to improve retention and outcomes for treatment of problem gambling and gambling disorder. Contingency management (CM) is a behavioural intervention involving identification of target behaviours (such as attendance, abstinence, or steps towards recovery) and the provision of incentives (such as vouchers or credits towards the purchase of preferred items) contingent on objective evidence of these behaviours. Contingency management for abstinence and attendance in substance misuse treatment has a substantial evidence base but has not been widely adopted or extended to other addictive behaviours such as gambling. Potential barriers to the widespread adoption of CM may relate to practitioners’ perceptions about this form of incentive-based treatment. The present study sought to explore United Kingdom (UK) gambling treatment providers’ views of CM for treatment of problem gambling and gambling disorder. Methods We conducted semi-structured interviews with 30 tr...
Participants were trained and tested to select stimuli of differing physical quantities in the pr... more Participants were trained and tested to select stimuli of differing physical quantities in the presence of 2 color contextual cues for more than and less than. Following more than and less than relational training, participants allocated the majority of their responses to the slot machine that shared formal properties of color with the contextual cue for more than, despite the identical payout probabilities of the slot machines. DESCRIPTORS: contextual control, gambling, relational training, replication, slot machines This study was conducted as part of Alice Hoon's undergraduate honors thesis under the supervision of Simon Dymond. We thank Jennifer Austin for her comments.
Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education, 2014
Contract cheating is the process whereby students auction off the opportunity for others to compl... more Contract cheating is the process whereby students auction off the opportunity for others to complete assignments for them. It is an apparently widespread yet under-researched problem. One suggested strategy to prevent contract cheating is to shorten the turnaround time between the release of assignment details and the submission date, thus making it difficult for students to make arrangements with contractors. Here we outline some characteristics of the current market for contract cheating and demonstrate that short turnaround times are unlikely to prevent contract cheating because requested turnaround times for university-level assignments completed via contract cheating are already short (average 5 days). In addition, for every contractor awarded a job, there are an average of 10 others offering to complete it within the specified time suggesting that there is abundant excess capacity in the market.
of full length (20-30 doublespaced pages approximately), which may contain multiple experiments, ... more of full length (20-30 doublespaced pages approximately), which may contain multiple experiments, and are original contributions to the published literature on gambling. Research Reportsa manuscript of reduced length (no more than 10 double-spaced pages and a single figure or table page), which may be less experimentally rigorous than a Research Article, a replication of or failure to replicate a prior published article, or pilot data that demonstrates a clear relationship between independent and dependent variable(s). The Results and Discussion sections of Reports should be combined. Clinical Demonstrationsa manuscript of reduced length (no more than 8 double-spaced pages and a single figure or table page) which lack the rigor of a true experimental design, yet do demonstrate behavior change of persons with gambling disorders under clinical care. This manuscript should contain an Introduction, Methods/Treatments, Results, and Discussion sections. The Results and Discussion sections of Clinical Demonstrations should be combined.
Symbolic generalization refers to the transfer of learning to symbolically related stimuli. In sl... more Symbolic generalization refers to the transfer of learning to symbolically related stimuli. In slot-machine gambling, near-misses describes instances where a losing stimulus display resembles an actual win display (e.g., two out of three matching stimuli on the payout line) and may promote excessive patterns of play. The present study sought to further examine the role of symbolic generalization in near-misses using a simulated slot-machine gambling task. A sample of 91 recreational gamblers first underwent relational training and testing involving gambling-specific stimuli (e.g., cherries and bells). Next, one stimulus (labelled, for the purposes of clarity, ‘X’) was presented as an image on slot-machine reels depicting win, nearmiss and loss displays. Symbolic generalization was tested with presentations of stimuli indirectly related to X via same (‘C’) and opposite (‘D’) relations. We expected higher closeness to win ratings of displays consisting of C compared to D, with similar...
Situational or contextual factors involved in slot machine gambling, such as colors, are assumed ... more Situational or contextual factors involved in slot machine gambling, such as colors, are assumed to play an important role in initiating and maintaining gambling. However, there is little empirical evidence for this assumption. The present study sought to investigate the effects of manipulating two contextual factors (the background colors of computer-simulated slot machines) on participants" responding to two concurrently available slot machines. Following a pretest, a nonarbitrary relational training and testing procedure was used to establish contextual functions of MORE-THAN and LESS-THAN for two cues. During posttest, participants allocated the majority of their responses to the slot machine that shared nonarbitrary properties with the contextual cue for MORE-THAN, despite the identical payout probabilities of the slot machines. Overall, the present findings demonstrate that participants" preferences for one of two concurrently available slot machines may come under contextual control. The advantages of the present approach to investigating the role played by situational factors such as colors in maintaining slot machine gambling are discussed.
Structural characteristics of slot machines, such as color, have been implicated in the maintenan... more Structural characteristics of slot machines, such as color, have been implicated in the maintenance of problem gambling. Behavior-analytic research has demonstrated that preferences for identically programmed, concurrently available simulated slot machines can be brought under contextual control, which may provide a functional account of the control exerted by structural characteristics. Specifically, when participants were trained that the color yellow was a contextual cue for ‘more than’ and the color blue was a contextual cue for ‘less than’, participants showed an increased preference for the yellow slot machine, despite both machines being identical in schedule and magnitude of reinforcement. The present experiments sought to replicate and extend these findings in several ways. First, we sought to overcome limitations of pretest/posttest designs by employing a nonconcurrent multiple baseline design, counterbalancing the contextual cues, and employing problem gamblers as partici...
Background and aims International evidence indicates elevated problem gambling rates in armed for... more Background and aims International evidence indicates elevated problem gambling rates in armed forces veterans compared with the general population. Gambling problems adversely impact one's family, and family-related variables may increase vulnerability to gambling-related harm. Little is known, however, about gambling problems in the United Kingdom (UK) veterans or to what extent family variables, such as parenting history and experience of domestic violence, influence veterans' gambling. Methods We compared veterans (n = 257) and sex- and age-matched controls (n = 514) drawn from the 2007 Adult Psychiatric Morbidity Survey on gambling, financial management, domestic violence, childhood parental presence, and experience of stressful life events. Veterans who left the military before or after 4 years of service were compared. Results Problem gambling was significantly more prevalent in veterans (1.4%) than non-veterans (0.2%), and the impact of gambling problems on the family...
Journal of medical Internet research, Jan 24, 2016
The need for effective interventions to improve mental health and emotional well-being at a popul... more The need for effective interventions to improve mental health and emotional well-being at a population level are gaining prominence both in the United Kingdom and globally. Advances in technology and widespread adoption of Internet capable devices have facilitated rapid development of Web-delivered psychological therapies. Interventions designed to manage a range of affective disorders by applying diverse therapeutic approaches are widely available. The main aim of this review was to evaluate the evidence base of acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) in a Web-based delivery format. A systematic review of the literature and meta-analysis was conducted. Two electronic databases were searched for Web-delivered interventions utilizing ACT for the management of affective disorders or well-being. Only Randomized Controlled Trials (RCTs) were included. The search strategy identified 59 articles. Of these, 10 articles met the inclusion criteria specified. The range of conditions and outco...
International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, Dec 19, 2022
This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative... more This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY
The Covid-19 pandemic and subsequent national lockdowns resulted in drastic changes to the way th... more The Covid-19 pandemic and subsequent national lockdowns resulted in drastic changes to the way that higher education was delivered. A mixed-methods research study was conducted to explore university students’ perceptions of online learning during the 2020/21 academic year. Students from across all Welsh higher education institutions were invited to participate. First, a series of focus groups (n=13) were conducted to explore students’ experiences of online learning during the pandemic. Two were conducted in Welsh, the remaining eleven in English. Thematic analysis led researchers to develop eight key themes: Seeking the positives, Facilitators to learning, Barriers to learning, Lost sense of community, Let down by University, Workload, Assessment, and Health and well-being. These themes informed the design of a quantitative survey which was completed by 759 students. It was found that students were largely satisfied with the quality of online learning, however there were specific ch...
Background There is a need to improve retention and outcomes for treatment of problem gambling an... more Background There is a need to improve retention and outcomes for treatment of problem gambling and gambling disorder. Contingency management (CM) is a behavioural intervention involving identification of target behaviours (such as attendance, abstinence, or steps towards recovery) and the provision of incentives (such as vouchers or credits towards the purchase of preferred items) contingent on objective evidence of these behaviours. Contingency management for abstinence and attendance in substance misuse treatment has a substantial evidence base but has not been widely adopted or extended to other addictive behaviours such as gambling. Potential barriers to the widespread adoption of CM may relate to practitioners’ perceptions about this form of incentive-based treatment. The present study sought to explore United Kingdom (UK) gambling treatment providers’ views of CM for treatment of problem gambling and gambling disorder. Methods We conducted semi-structured interviews with 30 tr...
Participants were trained and tested to select stimuli of differing physical quantities in the pr... more Participants were trained and tested to select stimuli of differing physical quantities in the presence of 2 color contextual cues for more than and less than. Following more than and less than relational training, participants allocated the majority of their responses to the slot machine that shared formal properties of color with the contextual cue for more than, despite the identical payout probabilities of the slot machines. DESCRIPTORS: contextual control, gambling, relational training, replication, slot machines This study was conducted as part of Alice Hoon's undergraduate honors thesis under the supervision of Simon Dymond. We thank Jennifer Austin for her comments.
Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education, 2014
Contract cheating is the process whereby students auction off the opportunity for others to compl... more Contract cheating is the process whereby students auction off the opportunity for others to complete assignments for them. It is an apparently widespread yet under-researched problem. One suggested strategy to prevent contract cheating is to shorten the turnaround time between the release of assignment details and the submission date, thus making it difficult for students to make arrangements with contractors. Here we outline some characteristics of the current market for contract cheating and demonstrate that short turnaround times are unlikely to prevent contract cheating because requested turnaround times for university-level assignments completed via contract cheating are already short (average 5 days). In addition, for every contractor awarded a job, there are an average of 10 others offering to complete it within the specified time suggesting that there is abundant excess capacity in the market.
of full length (20-30 doublespaced pages approximately), which may contain multiple experiments, ... more of full length (20-30 doublespaced pages approximately), which may contain multiple experiments, and are original contributions to the published literature on gambling. Research Reportsa manuscript of reduced length (no more than 10 double-spaced pages and a single figure or table page), which may be less experimentally rigorous than a Research Article, a replication of or failure to replicate a prior published article, or pilot data that demonstrates a clear relationship between independent and dependent variable(s). The Results and Discussion sections of Reports should be combined. Clinical Demonstrationsa manuscript of reduced length (no more than 8 double-spaced pages and a single figure or table page) which lack the rigor of a true experimental design, yet do demonstrate behavior change of persons with gambling disorders under clinical care. This manuscript should contain an Introduction, Methods/Treatments, Results, and Discussion sections. The Results and Discussion sections of Clinical Demonstrations should be combined.
Symbolic generalization refers to the transfer of learning to symbolically related stimuli. In sl... more Symbolic generalization refers to the transfer of learning to symbolically related stimuli. In slot-machine gambling, near-misses describes instances where a losing stimulus display resembles an actual win display (e.g., two out of three matching stimuli on the payout line) and may promote excessive patterns of play. The present study sought to further examine the role of symbolic generalization in near-misses using a simulated slot-machine gambling task. A sample of 91 recreational gamblers first underwent relational training and testing involving gambling-specific stimuli (e.g., cherries and bells). Next, one stimulus (labelled, for the purposes of clarity, ‘X’) was presented as an image on slot-machine reels depicting win, nearmiss and loss displays. Symbolic generalization was tested with presentations of stimuli indirectly related to X via same (‘C’) and opposite (‘D’) relations. We expected higher closeness to win ratings of displays consisting of C compared to D, with similar...
Situational or contextual factors involved in slot machine gambling, such as colors, are assumed ... more Situational or contextual factors involved in slot machine gambling, such as colors, are assumed to play an important role in initiating and maintaining gambling. However, there is little empirical evidence for this assumption. The present study sought to investigate the effects of manipulating two contextual factors (the background colors of computer-simulated slot machines) on participants" responding to two concurrently available slot machines. Following a pretest, a nonarbitrary relational training and testing procedure was used to establish contextual functions of MORE-THAN and LESS-THAN for two cues. During posttest, participants allocated the majority of their responses to the slot machine that shared nonarbitrary properties with the contextual cue for MORE-THAN, despite the identical payout probabilities of the slot machines. Overall, the present findings demonstrate that participants" preferences for one of two concurrently available slot machines may come under contextual control. The advantages of the present approach to investigating the role played by situational factors such as colors in maintaining slot machine gambling are discussed.
Structural characteristics of slot machines, such as color, have been implicated in the maintenan... more Structural characteristics of slot machines, such as color, have been implicated in the maintenance of problem gambling. Behavior-analytic research has demonstrated that preferences for identically programmed, concurrently available simulated slot machines can be brought under contextual control, which may provide a functional account of the control exerted by structural characteristics. Specifically, when participants were trained that the color yellow was a contextual cue for ‘more than’ and the color blue was a contextual cue for ‘less than’, participants showed an increased preference for the yellow slot machine, despite both machines being identical in schedule and magnitude of reinforcement. The present experiments sought to replicate and extend these findings in several ways. First, we sought to overcome limitations of pretest/posttest designs by employing a nonconcurrent multiple baseline design, counterbalancing the contextual cues, and employing problem gamblers as partici...
Background and aims International evidence indicates elevated problem gambling rates in armed for... more Background and aims International evidence indicates elevated problem gambling rates in armed forces veterans compared with the general population. Gambling problems adversely impact one's family, and family-related variables may increase vulnerability to gambling-related harm. Little is known, however, about gambling problems in the United Kingdom (UK) veterans or to what extent family variables, such as parenting history and experience of domestic violence, influence veterans' gambling. Methods We compared veterans (n = 257) and sex- and age-matched controls (n = 514) drawn from the 2007 Adult Psychiatric Morbidity Survey on gambling, financial management, domestic violence, childhood parental presence, and experience of stressful life events. Veterans who left the military before or after 4 years of service were compared. Results Problem gambling was significantly more prevalent in veterans (1.4%) than non-veterans (0.2%), and the impact of gambling problems on the family...
Journal of medical Internet research, Jan 24, 2016
The need for effective interventions to improve mental health and emotional well-being at a popul... more The need for effective interventions to improve mental health and emotional well-being at a population level are gaining prominence both in the United Kingdom and globally. Advances in technology and widespread adoption of Internet capable devices have facilitated rapid development of Web-delivered psychological therapies. Interventions designed to manage a range of affective disorders by applying diverse therapeutic approaches are widely available. The main aim of this review was to evaluate the evidence base of acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) in a Web-based delivery format. A systematic review of the literature and meta-analysis was conducted. Two electronic databases were searched for Web-delivered interventions utilizing ACT for the management of affective disorders or well-being. Only Randomized Controlled Trials (RCTs) were included. The search strategy identified 59 articles. Of these, 10 articles met the inclusion criteria specified. The range of conditions and outco...
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