A narrow, elongated depression or groove, especially one in a door or other machine into which something can be inserted or pushed. Also: a small opening for receiving or admitting something, as a coin or a letter. Also: a position, time, or slot on a schedule or in a sequence, as of events, a television program, or an appointment. Synonyms: berth, billet, cradle, jug, hole, nook, pocket, prick, slit, spot, vent, window. “She pushed her coin into the slot and turned the handle.” “We’ll put you in a slot next to the skunk.”
A type of gambling machine that displays reels in a glass case and accepts cash or paper tickets with barcodes as input. Players activate the machines by pushing a lever or button (either physical or on a touchscreen), which then spins the reels and causes symbols to land in combinations that earn credits based on the paytable. Some machines also have a jackpot, which increases the size of a win. A jackpot can be specific to a game, such as a poker hand with a pair of jacks, or it can be more general, like winning the lottery or finding a well-paying job.
In this study, participants played three separate slot machines in a laboratory setting. The spin buttons on each machine were connected to a force transducer that measured the amount of pressure applied and converted it to a volt signal recorded by a LabChart data acquisition system from AD Instruments PowerLabs. This signal was then sent to a computer, which recorded the number of times each symbol landed on a payline and the total number of wins and losses.
Results showed that the frequency of a particular symbol was positively correlated with total wins and negatively correlated with the likelihood of a winning combination. This finding is consistent with the hypothesis that reward reactivity contributes to some aspects of slots enjoyment not attributable to dark flow. It may be that the repeated, attention-capturing rewards of slots create an arousal state that distracts gamblers from their thoughts about the negative aspects of life. This distraction may also help explain why many people find the experience of gambling pleasurable. Alternatively, the pleasure of slots play could be due to other, more innate psychological processes. Nonetheless, this study provides important new insight into the nature of slots enjoyment.