The relationship between lack of control and illusory pattern perception among at-risk gamblers and at-risk cannabis users

The link between lack of control and illusory pattern perception in gambling and cannabis use disorders is important to understand because the role of cognitive distortions as etiological risk factors in the development and maintenance of these disorders remains unclear. In this study, undergraduate students are categorized into five severity groups based on gambling and cannabis problem severity and illusory pattern perception variables are assessed following random assignment to two experimental groups: a lack-of-control and baseline group. In the lack-of-control group, a sense of lack of control is experimentally induced, whereas the baseline group serves as a neutral comparison. The results reveal no differences in illusory pattern perception among the severity groups and only partially and weakly replicate the findings of Whitson and Galinsky (2008), whereby relative to the baseline group, participants in the lack-of-control group perceive more illusory patterns in only one of two illusory pattern perception tasks. As an extension of Whitson and Galinsky, we also find that participants in the lack-of-control group detect more real patterns compared to participants in the baseline group in one of two illusory pattern perception tasks. No differences between severity groups are observed in terms of accuracy for identifying both non-real and real patterns.

► Participants were categorized into severity groups based on gambling and cannabis problem severity. ► All participants were randomly assigned to two experimental groups: a lack-of-control group and a baseline group. ► Illusory pattern perception was assessed. No difference among the severity groups was observed. ► Participants in the lack-of-control group perceived more illusory and real patterns in one of two pattern perception tasks.