An Analysis of Behaviour on Near-miss Feedback in Slot-machine-like Contexts

• Author / Creator

  Yong, Joshua J.H.

• A near miss is considered a special type of failure that approximates a goal. In skillful activities, near misses are indeed contingent on behaviour. Therefore, they can suggest how behaviour ought to be modified to achieve a desired end. However, near misses in games of chance do not share this function. Despite the independence of near-miss feedback and behaviour, near misses are presumed to enhance the gambling response. In slot machine gambling, a near miss occurs when all but the last reel line up with the same image (e.g., cherry-cherry-lemon on a three-reel slot machine). Behavioural research has been inconsistent and there is a lack of consensus on whether or not the near-miss effect in slot machine gambling is a real phenomenon. Furthermore, the behavioural studies that claimed to find a near-miss effect are disputable. In the present work, Experiments 1A, 1B, and 2 examined the putative conditionally reinforcing function of near misses in pigeons and humans through an extinction procedure using highly simplified slot-machine-like tasks. Experiment 3 further simplified the task to assess the procedural validity of the extinction procedure. The results from Experiments 1A, 1B, and 2 did not find evidence that near-miss feedback causes greater persistence. Although Experiment 3 provided evidence for conditional reinforcement, the effect did not apply to persistence. Using a different approach, Experiment 4 showed that people were indifferent to the presence or lack of near-miss feedback. The results from the present work and the existing literature suggest that the near-miss effect is unlikely to be a real behavioural phenomenon.

• Subjects / Keywords

  • Slot machine
  • Conditional reinforcement
  • Near miss
  • Behaviour
  • Gambling

• Graduation date

  Fall 2018

• Type of Item

  Thesis

• Degree

  Master of Science

• DOI

  https://doi.org/10.7939/R33776B19

• License

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