New Perspectives on Emotional Processes and Decision Making in the Game of Poker with Special Emphasis on the Tilting Phenomenon

...........................................................................................................................5 Tiivistelmä .........................................................................................................................7 Acknowledgements ..........................................................................................................9 List of original publications ...........................................................................................11 Abbreviations and poker glossary ................................................................................12 Foreword .........................................................................................................................15 1 Background ..................................................................................................................17 1.1 The game of poker .................................................................................................17 1.2 Experience and skill in poker .................................................................................18 1.2.1 Aspects of poker playing skill .........................................................................20 1.2.2 Tilting .............................................................................................................21 1.3 Methods and models in the field of emotions and decision making ........................23 1.3.1 Psychophysiology of human emotions and decision making ..........................25 1.4 The aims of the present thesis ...............................................................................27 2 Social context of research ..........................................................................................31 3 Methods ........................................................................................................................34 3.1 Study designs and participants ..............................................................................34 3.2 Experimental procedures and materials .................................................................34 3.3 Data-analyses ........................................................................................................40 4 Results .........................................................................................................................44 4.1 Loss-induced emotions and tilting (Study I) ...........................................................44 4.1.1 Dissociative feelings, moral indignation and chasing .....................................44 4.1.2 The aftermath of tilting ...................................................................................45 4.1.3 Experienced vs. inexperienced players ..........................................................46 4.1.4 Benefits of poker experience .........................................................................47 4.2 Determinants of poker decision making (Study II) ..................................................49 4.3 Sensitivity to losses and tilting severity (Study III) ..................................................52 4.4 Electrodermal activity and poker decision making (Study IV) .................................54 5 Discussion ...................................................................................................................58 5.1 The phenomenology and aetiology of tilting ...........................................................58