Near-Misses and Stop Buttons in Slot Machine Play: An Investigation of How They Affect Players,and May Foster Erroneous Cognitions

In modern casinos, multiline slot machines are becoming increasingly popular compared to traditional, three-reel slot machines. A paucity of research has examined how the unique presentation of near-misses and the use of a stop button in multiline slot machines impact erroneous cognitions related to the perception of skill and agency during play. Our goal therefore was to determine the prevalence of erroneous cognitions pertaining to near-miss outcomes and the usage of a stop button and then to see whether the stop button affected players’ experiences of winning, losing and near-miss outcomes. We recruited 132 gamblers from a casino in Ontario. They played two versions of a slot machine simulator: one with a stop button and one without a stop button. We measured player’s arousal [skin conductance responses (SCRs), pressure on the spin-button), and behavioural responses (post-reinforcement pauses (PRPs)] to wins, losses and near-misses during play. We predicted more robust physiological SCRs and longer PRPs to wins in the stop button game. We also predicted that near-misses encountered in the stop button game would trigger greater levels of arousal and frustration in players, as indexed by larger SCRs, and greater force applied to the spin button to initiate the next spin. Erroneous cognitions pertaining to the stop button and near-misses respectively were assessed following play. Results showed that a small but meaningful percentage of players held erroneous cognitions about the stop button (13.6%) and near-misses (16%). Players depressed the spin button harder, and had larger SCRs for all outcomes when using the stop button. Players also paused longer for near-misses in the game involving the stop button. Our findings converge to suggest that the stop button encourages an erroneous perception of skill in some players, and consequentially impacts how such players perceive their outcomes in multiline slot machines.     

The Recognition of Wifely Labour by Welfare States

This article is concerned with questions about the amount of support given by welfare states towards the maintenance of a wife engaged in housework and child care. It compares the value of the support supplied by the tax/benefit packages of 15 countries. The article defines support for wifely labour as the difference between the net disposable income of a single person and a couple with the same earnings. In analysing the data, three models are used: the “traditional” model where the wife is economically dependent on her husband; the “modern” model where the wife remains outside the labour market while she has young children; and the “dual breadwinner” model where the mother of young children is in full- or part-time employment. Much of the analysis is concerned with patterns of social policy in which support for wives is associated with support for children. While the evidence shows that welfare states do provide support to wives, both with and without young children and engaged in paid as well as unpaid work, the levels of support vary greatly between welfare states. The variations are not associated with the generally discussed categorizations of welfare state types.     

Testing for Nonlinear Dependence in Inventory Data

This paper describes the properties of nonlinear dynamical systems in demand data and assesses the implications for inventory management. A test from Brock, Dechert, and Scheinkman (BDS) [6] for detecting nonlinearities is presented. This test assists inventory managers with two issues. First, it can be used to detect departures from the independence and stationarity assumptions of particular inventory models, thereby identifying the need for more suitable models. Second, the BDS test can determine whether forecasting model improvements are possible, and can measure improvements in the forecasting model process. The corresponding reductions in forecast errors improve inventory management and lead to reduced inventory costs. Using actual weekly demand for oil filters, this paper demonstrates the use of the BDS test and the effects of nonlinearities in demand data on inventory model performance.     

Labour Market Flexibility,Human Resource Management and Corporate Performance

Labour market flexibility is often portrayed as a key to the competitive success of the UK and US economies. We surveyed several hundred firms in the UK, and using the resulting data (on over 200 manufacturing firms) this paper investigates the relationships between firms’ use of flexible work practices, human resource systems and industrial relations on the one hand, and corporate performance on the other hand. The results suggest that ‘low‐road’ practices – short‐term contracts, a lack of employer commitment to job security, low levels of training and low levels of human resource sophistication – are negatively correlated with corporate performance. In contrast, it is found that ‘high‐road’ work practices –‘high commitment’ organizations or ‘transformed’ workplaces – are positively correlated with good corporate performance. It is also found that human resource management practices are more likely to contribute to competitive success where they are introduced as a comprehensive package, or ‘bundle’ of practices. Significant interaction effects between human resource systems, trade unions and flexible work practices add further support to the bundling hypothesis.     

Cross-national changes in time-use: some sociological (hi) stories re-examined

The paper addresses some macro-sociological questions about changes in broad categories of time-use. The focus is on large-scale cross-national time trends from developed countries in paid and unpaid work, and leisure. Reference is made to some well-known sociological and historical accounts of such change, and to the fact that time-use diary data has only relatively recently become available for analysing trends over time. The data used are drawn from a comparative cross-time data archive held by the Institute for Social and Economic Research at Essex University, comprising successive time-use diary surveys from a range of industrialized countries collected from the 1960s to the 1990s. The time use evidence suggests relative stability in the balance between work and leisure time over the period covered by the analyses. Some alternative explanations are advanced for why there seems to be a gap between this evidence and, on the one hand, the burgeoning literature in both academic and popular media addressing the 'time famine' and, on the other, people's professed experience of what is happening to their time.     

Assessment-Informed Intervention for Aphasia in an Older Adult: Transfer of Stimulus Control Procedure Considerations

The purpose of this study was to contribute to the small but growing literature on the rehabilitation of language for older adults, as well as evaluate the clinical utility of a functional approach to language assessment. The study included an assessment-based response profile that informed individualized treatment targets and prompt selection, and a multiple-baseline design across behaviors with an embedded multielement design was used to systematically compare two transfer of stimulus control procedures. Results suggested that the prompt-delay procedure resulted in positive treatment outcomes and provided valuable information on the implications of basing treatment goals on functional assessment.     

A statistical framework for ecological and aggregate studies

Inference from studies that make use of data at the level of the area, rather than at the level of the individual, is more difficult for a variety of reasons. Some of these difficulties arise because frequently exposures (including confounders) vary within areas. In the most basic form of ecological study the outcome measure is regressed against a simple area level summary of exposure. In the aggregate data approach a survey of exposures and confounders is taken within each area. An alternative approach is to assume a parametric form for the within-area exposure distribution. We provide a framework within which ecological and aggregate data studies may be viewed, and we review some approaches to inference in such studies, clarifying the assumptions on which they are based. General strategies for analysis are provided including an estimator based on Monte Carlo integration that allows inference in the case of a general risk–exposure model. We also consider the implications of the introduction of random effects, and the existence of confounding and errors in variables.