Aufmerksamkeitsbias bei Personen mit einer Störung durch Spielen von Internetspielen

The diagnostic criteria for Internet Gaming Disorder (IGD) are based on those for Gambling Disorder and Substance Use Disorders. The question arises whether these disorders also share features in the maintenance such as an abstinence phenomenon, a development of tolerance or an attentional bias. An attentional bias manifests itself in an increased attention towards stimuli that are associated with a disorder and is a robust finding in people with addictions and excessive gamblers. In this dissertation it was investigated whether persons with an IGD would show an attentional bias towards computer-related stimuli. In study 1, the reliability and validity of a questionnaire that assesses IGD was investigated in a sample of German-speaking Internet gamers. The Internet Gaming Disorder Questionnaire had an acceptable internal consistency and a unidimensional factorial structure. In study 2, it was investigated whether pathological Internet gamers and non-gamers would show an attentional bias towards computer stimuli using an addiction Stroop and a visual probe. In both paradigms, reaction times served as an indirect indicator of an attentional bias. In the addiction Stroop, the participants saw computer-related and neutral words in a randomized word order. The pathological Internet gamers displayed an attentional bias in the addiction Stroop; they reacted more slowly to computer-related compared to neutral words. In the visual probe, the participants saw computer-related and neutral pictures. The visual probe did not result in an attentional bias; the pathological Internet gamers reacted exactly as fast to computer-related as to neutral pictures. The study was conducted in a laboratory and students took part. To replicate study 2 with a bigger and more heterogeneous sample, studies 3A and 3B were carried out on the Internet. In both studies, the attentional bias towards computer stimuli was examined in Internet gamers with an IGD, Internet gamers without an IGD, and non-gamers using an addiction Stroop. In study 3A, the persons with IGD did not display an attentional bias in an addiction Stroop with a randomized word order. In study 3B, they also did not display the bias in an addiction Stroop with a block design. All participants in study 3B showed the interference effect in a colour Stroop task; they reacted more slowly to colour words in an incongruent font colour than to neutral words. To investigate whether the different results in study 2, 3A, and B deemed from the varying implementation modalities, the equivalence of reaction times measured in the laboratory and on the Internet was investigated using a colour Stroop task in study 4. Psychology students of the University of Marburg were randomized into two groups at the psychological institute. They took part in the laboratory (group 1) or at a place of their choice via the Internet (group 2). Persons studying different subjects at other universities (group 3) and people from the general population (group 4) also took part at a place of their choice via the Internet. All groups displayed the Stroop interference effect. The reaction times of group 3 and 4 were equivalent to those of group 1. Group 2 reacted more slowly and their results were not equivalent to those of group 1. Possibly, the participants were less motivated than those in the other groups because they inadvertently had a higher expenditure of time. Three out of four experiments did not provide evidence for an attentional bias in people with an IGD. Two of those were conducted on the Internet which might have influenced the results. However, study 4 showed that the reaction times measured on the Internet were mostly equivalent to those obtained in the laboratory. All experiments used reaction times as an indirect measure for the attentional bias. The attentional bias should be investigated further with more direct measures such as eye tracking or electroencephalography.