Investigating properties of imagery-induced flash-forwards and the effect of eye movements on the experience of desire and craving in gamers

License to look? The role of permissive beliefs, desire thinking, and self-control in predicting the use of social networking sites

Permissive beliefs are considered the most proximal predictor of actual behavior. Whereas they have frequently been researched in substance-use disorders, the field of social networking sites (SNS) use is missing the investigation as to how relevant permissive beliefs might be in this context, what might be causal precursors of permissive beliefs (i.e., desire thinking), and which processes might influence the effect that permissive beliefs have on actual behavior (i.e., self-control). To answer these questions, 116 people who use SNS participated in an online survey that contained an experimental manipulation of desire thinking and questionnaires measuring permissive beliefs, self-control, and severity of problematic SNS use. In a one-week follow-up, 85 participants reported their SNS usage times. Results showed that the association between permissive beliefs and tendencies to use SNS problematically was not significant. The experimental manipulation led to a decrease in permissive beliefs in the control condition, but did not increase permissive beliefs in the desire thinking condition. Permissive beliefs predicted SNS use in the follow-up assessment, which was not moderated by self-control. The results suggest that permissive beliefs seem to be unrelated to addictive tendencies of SNS use, but are nevertheless associated with daily use. Desire thinking does not appear to activate permissive beliefs in this study, possibly because the use of social networks is less often experienced as conflicting. Due to its ubiquitous availability, the use of social networks itself might quickly resolve the conflict between desires and possible regulatory attempts, making good reasons for use unnecessary.

The role of desire thinking in the problematic use of social networking sites among adults

The problematic use of social networking sites (SNS) is associated with several psychiatric disorders. This behavior closely resembles addiction in terms of neurological basis and behavioral patterns. Nevertheless, successful intervention strategies and the etiology of problematic SNS use are not yet thoroughly investigated. We aimed to study whether desire thinking is associated with problematic SNS use among adults when controlling for some confounders, including boredom, affect, and impulsivity. With the help of convenience sampling, we enrolled 546 Turkish adults in this study to whom we administered a sociodemographic form, the Social Media Addiction Scale (SMAS), the Leisure Boredom Scale (LBS), the Positive and Negative Affect Schedule (PANAS), the Barratt Impulsiveness Scale (BIS-11), and the Desire Thinking Questionnaire (DTQ). To explore the association between the variables, we performed Pearson correlational and hierarchical regression analyses. The results showed that higher scores on two sub-dimensions of desire thinking, namely verbal perseveration and imaginal prefiguration, were associated with higher scores on problematic SNS use after we controlled for boredom, affect, and impulsivity. This study demonstrates that desire thinking may play a role in problematic SNS use among adults. We recommend targeting desire thinking as a potential area in treatments which may help alleviate problematic SNS use.

Brain functional connectivity during and after imagery of gaming and alternative leisure activities in patients with internet gaming disorder

BACKGROUND

The effect of gaming cue exposure on brain activity in patients with internet gaming disorder (IGD) has been investigated a lot, but the effect on brain connectivity has not. This study aimed to investigate the effects of imageries of gaming and alternative leisure activities on functional connectivity during the during-task and post-task states in patients with IGD.

METHODS

Twenty-nine patients and 20 healthy controls were scanned in the 6-min states before, during, and after the imagery tasks for gaming and alternative leisure behaviors using fMRI. Seed-based functional connectivity during and after the tasks were analyzed. The seeds were the nucleus accumbens (NAcc), ventral tegmental area (VTA), caudate, putamen, anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), and posterior cingulate cortex.

RESULTS

The group-by-state interaction effects for the during-tasks were found in caudate-, putamen-, and ACC-based connectivity, whereas those for the post-tasks were shown only in NAcc-based connectivity. In particular, patients showed that caudate-right parahippocampal gyrus connectivity and putamen-right orbitofrontal cortex connectivity increased during gaming and decreased during alternative, whereas NAcc-right precuneus connectivity decreased at baseline, increased in post-gaming, and were not different in post-alternative.

CONCLUSION

Differences in during-task connectivity of the habit/motor and salience networks and post-task resting-state connectivity of the reward and limbic networks between the two imagery tasks may differ between the groups. In the treatment of IGD, when these network connections are reactive to alternative leisure activity, just as to gaming activity, they seem to be freed from gaming addiction.

Integrating Desire Thinking into the I-PACE Model: a Special Focus on Internet-Use Disorders

Purpose of Review

This manuscript aims to propose an integration of desire thinking into the Interaction of Person-Affect-Cognition-Execution (I-PACE) model based on theoretical considerations within the Elaborated Intrusion Theory of Desire and Self-Regulatory Execution Function model and empirical evidence from the field of internet-use disorders.

Recent Findings

Theory and research on desire thinking in the context of internet-use disorders suggest considerable relations to craving, metacognitive beliefs, and emphasizes its nature when initiated as a reaction towards unpleasant triggers. Accordingly, we postulate that desire thinking may be located at the position for affective and cognitive reactions towards triggers within the I-PACE model.

Summary

The suggested integration of desire thinking into the I-PACE model specifically implies the assumption of a relief-oriented and pleasure-oriented entry pathway into desire thinking and a feedback loop between desire thinking and the experience of gratification and compensation. The model pathways proposed here may serve as a theoretical basis for future research and need further empirical verification.

The effectiveness of dual-task interventions for modulating emotional memories in the laboratory: A meta-analysis

Dual-tasks (e.g., making horizontal eye-movements) while recollecting a memory are often used both in the lab and the clinic (such as in EMDR therapy) to attenuate emotional memories and intrusive mental images. According to working memory theory, dual-task interventions are effective because they limit cognitive resources available for the processing of emotional memories. However, there is still ongoing debate about the extent to which and under what conditions dual-task interventions are effective to interfere with emotional memories. In this meta-analysis, we assessed k = 53 laboratory studies investigating the effects of dual-task interventions on negative and positive memories. The effects were measured with the raw mean reduction in vividness and emotionality self-report ratings of emotional memories before compared to after the intervention on 100-point rating scales. Results showed that the dual-task interventions made both negative and positive memories less vivid (mean reduction negative images = 9.18, 95% CI [7.06, 11.29]; mean reduction positive images = 11.73, 95% CI [8.59, 14.86]) and less emotional (mean reduction negative images = 6.22, 95% CI [4.50, 7.94]; mean reduction positive images = 6.71, 95% CI [2.21, 11.20]). Several moderators were tested and are discussed in the light of working memory theory.

Fleeing through the mind's eye: Desire thinking as a maladaptive coping mechanism among specific online activities

INTRODUCTION

Desire thinking is defined as a voluntary cognitive activity aimed at imaginatively and verbally elaborating a future scenario of performing a desired behavior. Although not problematic per se, desire thinking can become dysfunctional if it is used to regulate negative mood states and due to its ability to induce craving. This study tests a mediation model where desire thinking is hypothesized to mediate the association between emotional reactivity and craving among specific online activities.

METHODS

The study comprised an online survey that was completed by 925 participants who indicated that their first-choice online activity was one out of social-networks use, shopping, gaming, gambling, or pornography viewing. In this sample, a structural equation model was tested where negative emotional reactivity, desire thinking, and craving were latently modelled in this serial order.

RESULTS

Results indicated that higher levels in negative emotional reactivity significantly predicted higher desire thinking tendencies, which in turn significantly predicted higher cravings for online activities. The direct path between negative reactivity and craving was not significant. Further, our results support the two-factorial structure of a German version of the Desire Thinking Questionnaire (Caselli & Spada, 2011).

DISCUSSION

The findings show that desire thinking might be initiated as an attempt to regulate negative affective states. This highlights its possible role as a maladaptive coping mechanism in the context of specific online activities due to the resulting craving responses, which in turn could promote the emergence of unwanted behaviors.

Desire thinking promotes decisions to game: The mediating role between gaming urges and everyday decision-making in recreational gamers

INTRODUCTION

Desire thinking is a voluntary cognitive process that involves the imaginal forecast of a desired activity and the verbal perseveration with plans and good reasons for engaging in it. Considering theoretical models arguing that specific decision-making processes may be involved in the development of gaming disorder, we hypothesized that an initial urge to game might be accelerated by desire thinking, leading to the decision to game in an everyday setting although the gaming behavior may conflict with another activity or certain other goals.

METHODS

A pre-study helped developing a catalogue of situations that provides forced-choice scenarios warranting a decision for or against gaming. To explore the postulated sequence of cognitive and affective events, a serial mediation model with urge to game as predictor, decision to game as dependent variable, and imaginal prefiguration and verbal perseveration as mediators was tested in a sample of 118 recreational gamers with varying degrees of gaming intensity.

RESULTS

The pre-study revealed a catalogue of 18 conflicting situations that likely happen in the daily life of gamers, containing conflicting activities such as job/educational performance and meeting friends/family/acquaintances. In the sequential mediation model, the desire thinking facets imaginal prefiguration and verbal perseveration fully mediated the relation between an initial urge and the decision to game.

CONCLUSIONS

The mediation model emphasizes the serial ordinance of desire thinking facets and their role in motivating decisions to game after an initial urge has been experienced. Results may indicate that desire thinking plays a considerable role in problematic gaming tendencies.

Cognitive Correlates in Gaming Disorder and Social Networks Use Disorder: a Comparison

Purpose of Review

This overview aims at summarizing studies, which investigated cognitive correlates of gaming disorder and of a problematic use of social networks by using behavioral experimental paradigms and brain imaging techniques.

Recent Findings

Based on theoretical models, inhibition/inhibitory control, attentional bias, executive functions, decision-making, and working memory capabilities have been identified as cognitive components, which are assumed to play a crucial role in the development and maintenance of an addictive behavior. A systematic search shows that various studies have already examined the involvement of different cognitive components in both types of potential addictive behaviors. However, the number of studies addressing cognitive correlates of social networks use disorder is very much lower compared with gaming disorder, even if there is a positive trend in terms of new publications in recent years.

Summary

Cognitive correlates have been frequently investigated in gaming disorder, as in many other disorders due to substance use or addictive behaviors. Studies on cognitive aspects involved in a problematic social networks use are still rare, but they are needed in order to further show if this phenomenon may also deserve a classification as addictive disorder. Interactions between different cognitive and affective processes are still understudied in both gaming disorder and problematic social networks use.

Clarifying terminologies in research on gaming disorder and other addictive behaviors: distinctions between core symptoms and underlying psychological processes

There exists ongoing debate regarding the clinical validity of single symptoms of and diagnostic criteria for gaming disorder. In particular, the potential symptom of gaming disorder that addresses coping with and escaping from negative feelings has received much attention and remains a focus of intensive discussion. We argue that it is important to consider differences or distinguish between, on the one hand, symptoms of and criteria for a disorder due to addictive behaviors, such as gaming disorder, versus, on the other hand, motivations, mechanisms, and psychological processes that may be involved in promoting addictive behaviors and that may explain symptom severity and course of the addictive disorder including potential treatment responses.