| Problematic mobile game use behavior(PMG)is a behavior that users strongly rely on mobile games and play mobile games repeatedly in a comparatively long period.Such behavior is associated with functional impairment and emotional difficulties,i.e.,enhanced depression and anxiety,as well as more social isolation.PMG belongs to the officially recognized GD-diagnosis(behavior addiction)in ICD-11,whereas many other online addictive behaviors at the moment are not officially recognized.Attention bias for addiction-related cues is a typical characteristic of addictive disorders.Researchers have suggested that there are similarities between GD and substance use disorder with regard to attentional bias processes.It means PMGs would also exhibit attentional bias for game-related stimuli.However,the attentional processing in PMGs is still worthy of exploration in three aspects.First,based on the processing characteristics,it is unclear the attentional bias for salient stimuli presented below the threshold of awareness,and the dynamic visual process above the threshold of awareness.Based on the types of game stimuli,the differences in bias processing that may be induced by experimental material forms are unclear,such as game scenes,icons,and words.Second,game-related stimuli can be classified as two stimuli,which are game and emotion stimuli,there is confusion between the effects of game and emotional attributes on the attentional bias in PMGs.Third,previous studies have found that content specificity of attentional bias to addiction-related information in substance use disorder,but there is still confusion about the influence of game and emotional attributes on the attentional bias to information of in PMGs.In summary,the present study systematically examined the attentional bias to game-related information in individuals with problematic mobile game use through three studies.Study 1 examined the attentional bias of game-related information in individuals with problematic mobile game use,including experiment 1 and experiment 2.Experiment 1 examined the attentional bias for game-related stimuli presented below the threshold of awareness in PMGs and non-problematic mobile game use group,through experiments 1a and 1b respectively in masked visual probe task.The results showed that PMGs had a preattentional bias for gaming scenes,but the presentation time of 17 ms couldn’t block the perception of game icon content.Experiment 2 examined the attentional bias for game-related stimuli presented above the threshold of awareness(200ms or 500ms)in PMGs and non-problematic mobile game use group,through Experiments 2a,2b,and 2c respectively in visual probe task.The results indicated that both groups have early vigilance for gaming icons and words,but this processing for gaming scenes only exists in PMGs.Experiment 3 combined the visual probe task and eye-tracking technology to examined the dynamic processing of attentional bias for game-related stimuli in PMGs and non-problematic mobile game use group,through Experiments 3a,3b,and 3c respectively.The results found that two groups represented early vigilance and late maintain for gaming scenes and icons,but only early vigilance for gaming words.Study 2 combined the visual probe task and eye-tracking technology,aimed to examine the effects of game and emotional attributes on attentional bias in PMGs,including three experiments.Experiment 4 examined the cognitive processes of attentional bias for game-positivity negativity,and neuter related information in PMGs and non-problematic mobile game use group.The results found that PMGs had greater early vigilance to game-positivity related information,but both groups had the greatest difficulty disengaging for game-positivity related information in later processing.Experiment 5a examined the cognitive processes of attentional bias for general positive,and game-positivity related information in PMGs and non-problematic mobile game use group.The results found that there was no significant difference to the two types of information in PMGs in time to first fixation,indicted the early vigilance,but the degree of vigilance to general positive stimuli was greater in the non-problematic mobile game use group.However,both groups had greater early vigilance,indexed by first fixation duration,and late difficulty in attentional disengagement for game-positivity related stimuli.Experiment 5b examined the cognitive processes of attentional for general negative,and game-negativity related information in PMGs and non-problematic mobile game use group.The results found that early vigilance to general negative stimuli and late maintenance to gamenegativity related information was greater in both groups.Study 3 combined the visual probe task and eye-tracking technology,aimed to examine the effects of game and emotional attributes on attentional bias to specific game information in PMGs,including three experiments.Experiment 6 examined the cognitive processes of attentional bias for specific or unspecific game-positivity,negativity,and neuter related information in PMGs and non-problematic mobile game use group.It was found that both groups showed less early vigilance for game-negativity related stimuli when it was specific condition,but this processing changed to the game-positivity related stimuli when it was a non-specific condition.In the middle and late stage,two groups showed greater maintenance(gaze time,dwell time,and dwell time rate)for non-specific gamepositivity related information.When the game was specific to participants,this larger maintenance processing was performance to game-negativity related stimuli(dwell time,dwell time rate,and fixation counts).Experiment 7a examined the cognitive processes of attentional bias for specific and nonspecific game-positivity related information,and general positive information in PMGs and nonproblematic mobile game use group.The results revealed that both groups showed rapid detection(time to first fixation)to general positive information.In addition,game attributes can enhance the processing degree of attentional bias for game positivity-related information in both groups,which was reflected in time to first fixation,gaze time,dwell time,dwell time rate,and fixation counts.However,the content specificity of the game could influence the effect of game attributes on above processing.Experiment 7b examined the cognitive processes of attentional bias for specific and nonspecific game-negativity related information,and general negative information in PMGs and non-problematic mobile game use group.The results found that early vigilance of general negative stimuli was greater for both the problematic and non-problematic mobile game use groups.However,this processing pattern was only shown between general negative and specific game-negativity related information in the first fixation duration.In later stage,two groups had greater maintenance from specific game-negativity related information(gaze time,dwell time,dwell time rate,and fixation counts),but there were inconsistent patterns between nonspecific game-negativity related and general negative information with different indexes and groups.Under the experimental conditions of this study,the following conclusions can be drawn:First,problematic mobile game users have an attentional bias for gaming scenes below the threshold of awareness.Second,both problematic and non-problematic mobile game users show the vigilancemaintenance model towards gaming scenes,icons,and words.Third,there are differences processing in attentional bias for different game-related valence stimuli between problematic and non-problematic mobile game users(mainly in the early stages),and it can be influenced by game content.Fourth,the attentional bias to game-positivity and negativity related information is influenced by game attributes both in problematic and non-problematic mobile game users.The former is manifested as a facilitation of attentional resource allocation in early and late processing,and the latter is also manifested as a facilitation of attentional resource allocation,but only exists in late processing.Both facilitation effects can be influenced by game content. |
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