Frances Finnigan

Subjective experience and the attentional lapse: Task engagement and disengagement during sustained attention

Three experiments investigated the relationship between subjective experience and attentional lapses during sustained attention. These experiments employed two measures of subjective experience (thought probes and questionnaires) to examine how differences in awareness correspond to variations in both task performance (reaction time and errors) and psycho-physiological measures (heart rate and galvanic skin response). This series of experiments examine these phenomena during the Sustained Attention to Response Task (SART, Robertson, Manly, Adrade, Baddeley, & Yiend, 1997). The results suggest we can dissociate between two components of subjective experience during sustained attention: (A) task unrelated thought which corresponds to an absent minded disengagement from the task and (B) a pre-occupation with ones task performance that seems to be best conceptualised as a strategic attempt to deploy attentional resources in response to a perception of environmental demands which exceed ones ability to perform the task. The implications of these findings for our understanding of how awareness is maintained on task relevant material during periods of sustained attention are discussed.

Prevalence and correlates of youth gambling in Scotland

The present research had the purpose of establishing baseline rate for the prevalence of youth problem gambling in Scotland. A cluster-design involved the distribution of questionnaires to youngsters in a classroom setting, with twelve schools from across Glasgow and North Lanarkshire participating in the research. A total of 2,043 youngsters aged between eleven and sixteen years of age (mean = 13.7) particpated in the study, with each participant obtained representing one hundred and ninety young people aged between eleven and sixteen across Scotland. Two questionnaires were employed in the study, with the first being designed by the authors to investigate types, frequency and correlates of gambling, and the second being the DSM-IV-J (Fisher, ). The prevalence of problem gambling in this study was 9.0 percent, with a further 15.1 percent deemed to be at-risk gamblers. By far the most popular type of youth gambling was fruit machines, regardless of gambling group. The high rates of problem and at-risk gambling clearly highlights the popularity of gambling in modern society and moreover the need for appropriate intervention strategies aimed at youth problem gramblers, possibly as early as twelve years of age. Worryingly, treatment for problem gamblers is virtually non-existent in Scotland.

Effects of meal composition on blood alcohol level, psychomotor performance and subjective state after ingestion of alcohol

Moderating effects of meal composition on psychomotor performance impairment and feelings after alcohol were examined in a between-subjects design. Fifty-one male volunteers fasted or received either a high carbohydrate (85% energy) or a high protein (94% energy) meal. Alcohol was administered at a dose to achieve a blood alcohol level (BAL) of 60 mg/100 ml, as a placebo. Subjects performed a dual task of primary tracking and secondary reaction time and a five-choice reaction time task. Feelings were also assessed by rating. The high carbohydrate meal reduced BAL at peak and 2 h after drinking, but a high protein meal had no significant effect. Although performance was impaired by alcohol, neither meal significantly reduced impairment and there was no effect of meal type on performance in the placebo condition. However, alcohol increased rated intoxication and the high carbohydrate meal reduced this effect. Subjects who had consumed high protein meals had more negative affect 2 h after alcohol than did subjects who had consumed high carbohydrate meals or fasted. It is concluded that there is only a weak relationship between BAL and performance impairment and food has only limited effects on impairment, although it reduces BAL.

Verbal expectancies and performance after alcohol

New verbal expectancies about the effects of alcohol were experimentally induced in subjects by suggesting in writing and verbally that food had positive, negative, or neutral effects on performance after alcohol. Subjects (n = 120, male) received this suggestion, food (fed or fasted), and alcohol (alcohol or placebo) in a between-subjects design. Alcohol impaired reaction time and tracking (with a secondary reaction-time task). Food reduced this impairment. The verbal expectancy manipulation had no effect on performance, although it had a marginally significant effect on rated ability to perform. It is concluded that verbal expectancy effects about alcohol influence verbal or social behaviours more easily than cognitive processes.

ASSOCIATION OF PATHOLOGICAL GAMBLING WITH DEPRESSION IN SCOTLAND

As most research concerning gambling and depression has been conducted on clinical populations, the present study examined the relationship between gambling and depression across a large sample in Scotland in higher education and the community. A questionnaire-based cluster design involved the distribution of the South Oaks Gambling Screen and the Centre for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale mainly to students and staff of higher educational establishments, with small community and gambling samples also included. Thirty-seven colleges and universities across Scotland participated in the research, with a sample of 2,259 people aged sixteen years of age or over (M = 28.9 yr., SD = 13.4) being obtained. It was found that past-year probable pathological gamblers had significantly higher depression than problem gamblers, nonproblem gamblers, and nongamblers. However, when probable pathological gamblers who had sought treatment were omitted from the analysis, the nontreatment-seeking probable pathological gambling group no longer had significantly higher depression than the problem gambling group. Female problem and probable pathological gamblers had particularly high depressive symptomatology, suggesting comorbid depression may be a prominent feature of problematic female gambling.