People with disordered gambling tend to pay more attention to gambling cues over other cues. This is called attentional bias. This study tested whether impulsivity played a role in the relationship between disordered gambling and attentional bias. Participants were 75 adults who gambled on electronic gaming machines (EGMs) regularly. They completed an eye-tracking task to measure attentional bias. Participants also completed several questionnaires measuring impulsivity and disordered gambling. Two aspects of impulsivity, negative and positive urgency, influenced the impact of disordered gambling on attentional bias. For participants with more severe gambling problems, those with a higher level of negative urgency showed larger attentional bias to EGM images. The same was true for positive urgency.
