A narrow notch, groove or opening, as a keyway in machinery or a slit for a coin in a vending machine. A slot may also refer to a position in a group, series or sequence, as in “He has a slot in the choir.”

When it comes to gambling, most people think of slots – those mechanical devices that spin reels and dispense coins when they stop. But there are other ways to gamble and win, including the lottery, horse racing, back-to-back bingo games and even online poker. Whether you’re winning the jackpot in a casino or backing the right horse in an IPO, human nature causes us to daydream about what we’d do with our windfalls.

A growing body of research suggests that arousal may not be the sole reason for enjoying slots. Instead, a small percentage of players enjoy gambling as a form of self-medication and seek relief from unpleasant psychological experiences – anxiety, depression or depressive symptomatology (Abbot & Volberg, 1996; Getty, Watson, & Frisch, 2000). The attention-capturing rewards in slots provide an escape from such negative emotions. Unlike other psychophysiological measures that involve cumbersome electrodes and wires, the two new measures of reward reactivity gauge positive affect variance without interrupting play or requiring any additional equipment. This approach may improve ecological validity and reduce potential interference that might inhibit flow. Moreover, these measures are less invasive than previous behavioral measures and offer the potential to measure different types of enjoyment.