A slot is a narrow opening, such as a hole or groove, into which something fits. It can also refer to a position in a group, series or sequence (he was
When a player wins, the slot’s reels stop spinning and a payout multiplier displays on the screen. The slot then plays a celebratory sound and produces animations. The size of the win determines how extensive this feedback is; a larger win results in a longer celebratory jingle. This feedback is one of the factors that drive a player’s enjoyment of slots.
In contrast, losses are not associated with any feedback, and the machine simply waits until the next spin. This lack of feedback may contribute to the gambler’s fallacy, the erroneous belief that a previous instance of a particular outcome in a random sequence can be used to predict a future occurrence in that same sequence.
This study introduces two new measures of reward reactivity that do not involve cumbersome electrodes and wires, which reduce ecological validity and can inhibit flow. These measures, referred to as PRP and force as a function of win size, were extracted from the data of participants reported by Dixon et al. Unlike the fMRI-based measures used by previous research, these measures do not require the player to wear a headset and are therefore less likely to interfere with a player’s enjoyment of slots. Both measures are positively correlated with positive affect ratings, but they do not correlate with either dark flow or depression scores.