RESEARCHERS AND CURRENT
RESEARCH PROJECTS
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Over the years, our GARC has consisted of Professor Emeritus, Richard Nicki; Research Associate, Timothy Gallagher; Doctoral students: Jason Doiron, Steve Jefferson, Laura Nichols, and Tony Hopley; and numerous Honours and Basic Research students as depicted below.
RESEARCH TEAM
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The research activity of this group has been responsible for the development and publication of the Informational Biases Scale (IBS), designed to assess faulty beliefs in VLT players; the Internet Addiction Scale (IAS), designed to measure the degree of Internet addiction in Internet users; and the "Stop and Think" program, designed to lessen the degree of risk for becoming a problem gambler among VLT players. Most recently, our GARC has been involved in the identification of characteristics (e.g., winning-focused, entertainment-focused) of VLT games introduced into the marketplace by the gambling industry which may make VLT players more liable to become problem gamblers.
In addition, we have investigated the effects of the use of videos designed to alter the cognitive distortions/faulty beliefs of VLT players, the placing of Banners on VLT machines in the community warning players about the true odds of VLT game outcomes, and self-monitoring of the time and cost of playing VLT games. Lastly, we have investigated the contribution of factors which predict problem gambling in VLT players on the prediction of gambling addiction in Texas Hold’em online players, and Internet addiction in Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Games (MMORPGs) players. Our research activity has been funded by: the Department of Health, Province of New Brunswick, the Department of Health, Province of Prince Edward Island, NB Lotteries and Gaming Corporation, and a UNB-Spielo AIF responsible gaming research grant .