Project Details
Projekt
P2: Devaluation of reward value in gaming disorder and buying-shopping disorder – psychological mechanisms and proof-of-concept study
Subject Area
Personality Psychology, Clinical and Medical Psychology, Methodology
General, Cognitive and Mathematical Psychology
General, Cognitive and Mathematical Psychology
Term
since 2020
Project identifier
Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 411232260
The ability of conditioned stimuli to affect instrumental responding is a robust finding from animal as well as human research and is considered a key factor for the development and maintenance of addictive behaviors. In our previous research, we demonstrated that stimuli conditioned to Internet gaming or buying-shopping applications enhance instrumental responding for rewards related to these applications in participants with risky use of gaming or buying-shopping, a so-called Pavlovian-to-instrumental transfer (PIT) effect. Although we found that devaluation (i.e. telling participants that no more rewards are available) decreased reward-related responding, the stimuli still had the power to bias responding. These findings underline the importance for future studies to enhance our understanding of how reward-related responding can be reduced effectively. Research on substance use disorders suggests that different training approaches can lead to a devaluation of substance-related stimuli, which in turn affects, for example, automatic approach tendencies. Regarding clinical outcome parameters (e.g., relapse rates), the evidence for cognitive bias modification (CBM) aimed at decreasing an alcohol-related approach bias is the most convincing, although no effects of CBM on an alcohol-related PIT effect were observed. The few studies available for Internet-use disorders provide preliminary evidence for the efficacy of CBM for gaming disorder, but also suggest that systematically associating gaming-related stimuli with negative outcomes (i.e. evaluative conditioning) may be an effective method to reduce the reward value. Against this background, a proof-of-concept study will be conducted to compare the effects of a modified CBM (i.e. DEV-CBM) and CBM on affective and cognitive mechanisms. In DEV-CBM, we will combine CBM with evaluative conditioning by systematically associating stimuli related to gaming/buying-shopping with stimuli referring to individual negative consequences from using these applications. Participants with at least risky use of games (n=126) or buying-shopping applications (n=126) will be randomly allocated to DEV-CBM or CBM. The assessment will consist of three parts. At t1, the intensive FOR2974 core battery diagnostics will be conducted, including experimental and neuropsychological tasks. At t2, the PIT effect, cue reactivity, and approach biases will be assessed before and after DEV-CBM/CBM. Then, an end-of-day ecological momentary assessment over five consecutive days will provide information on whether changes in the reward value affect cue reactivity, craving, and gratification from using the application in daily life. RP2 is strongly linked to RP7 and RP8, which are also proof-of-concept studies and investigate how affective and cognitive mechanisms can be modified.
DFG Programme
Research Units
