Up until about the early 1990s, sound changed little from the early days, on average featuring about fifteen sound effects whereas, today slot machines average about 400 sound effects (Rivlin 2004). Since the early 1900s, slot machine winning combinations have been accompanied by a ringing bell a design characteristic that is still present in most machines today. Sound has always been an integral component of slot machine play. The sounds also caused players to significantly overestimate the number of times they won while playing the slot machine. The sound also influenced players’ preferences, with the majority of players preferring to play slot machines that were accompanied by winning sounds. The results showed that the sound influenced the arousal of participants both psychophysically and psychologically.

Skin conductance responses and heart rate, as well as subjective judgments about the gambling experience were examined. A total of 96 gamblers played a slot machine simulator with and without sound being paired with reinforcement. In the current study, we investigate the role that sound plays in psychophysical responses to slot machine play. It is the use of sound for positive reinforcement in particular that we believe influences the player.

Sound plays an important role in reinforcement, and thus on arousal level and stress response of players. We believe that sound is one of these key contributing factors. The contributing factors to these effects remain under-explored. Slot machine wins and losses have distinctive, measurable, physiological effects on players.

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