Substitution Forgetting Of Negative Materials In Gaming Disorder

With the development of technology and the economy,video games have become one of the most common forms of entertainment,but excessive gaming could lead to physical and mental problems,resulting in gaming disorder(GD).GD is a kind of uncontrollable or persistent gaming behavior that is characterized by impaired control over gaming,increased emphasis on gaming,and escalating gaming behavior even faced with negative consequences.Other related concepts such as game addiction,pathological gaming,and problematic gaming,are also used to describe such behavior.Individuals with GD often encounter various problems in the real world,leading to the development of negative memories and emotions.Consequently,they may resort to escaping into the virtual world as a means of forgetting their real-world troubles.Since forgetting is an active process controlled by executive functions,the present study speculated that if GD individuals could forget negative memories in a non-gaming way,it may help them to leave the abyss of gaming.There is no literature regarding GD with intentional forgetting before,this study adopted a modified think/no-think(TNT)task to test the effects of two forgetting strategies(direct inhibition and thought substitution)on forgetting negative materials for GD individuals,and to test the longevity of any such effect.Study 1 aimed to compare the effects of two forgetting strategies.A total of 80 participants were recruited,including 40 of the direct inhibition group and 40 of the thought substitution group.The study applied a mixed experimental design of 2(forgetting method: direct inhibition,thought substitution)× 2(emotion valence:positive,negative)× 3(trial: think,baseline,no-think).Between-subject variable was forgetting method,within-subject variables were emotion valence and trial type,and dependent variable was recall accuracy in the final test phase.Materials were 36 pairs of neutral cue-emotional target images and 12 substitute images.The key point of the experiment was that when the images appeared in red frames in the TNT phase,the direct inhibition group was instructed to block out all thoughts of the associated images,while the thought substitution group was instructed to recall the substitute target image.The main outcome of the study was the suppression-induced effect(SIF),which means that the accuracy of no-think trials was significantly lower than that of the baseline trials.The results showed that:(1)the direct inhibition group did not show a significant SIF effect,while the thought substitution group showed a significant SIF effect;(2)further analysis with valence revealed that the direct inhibition group produced a significant SIF effect for neutral materials,but not for negative materials;the thought substitution group showed a significant SIF effect for both valences;(3)we then divided the direct inhibition group into two levels of obedience(compliance with the instructions)and found that the level of obedience had no effect on the negative materials,but high level of obedience produced greater SIF effect in the neutral materials.The above results suggested that the effect of direct inhibition may be affected by the level of compliance with the instructions and performed differently among valences,whereas thought substitution exhibited a relatively stable forgetting effect under various conditions.Therefore,study 1 found that thought substitution may be a relatively better way of intentional forgetting.Study 2 explored the effects of intentional forgetting on negative materials in GD individuals.The study recruited 72 participants using the Gaming Disorder Screening Scale(GDSS),Internet Gaming Disorder-20 Test(IGD-20 Test),and the Internet Addiction Test(IAT),36 in the GD group and 36 in the control group.Between-subject variables were group and forgetting method,within-subject variables were emotion valence and trial type,and the dependent variable was the recall accuracy in the final test phase.The experimental materials and procedures were the same as in study 1.The results showed that:(1)demographics: the GD group was significantly different from the control group on the level of game addiction,anxiety,depression,and impulsivity;(2)ANOVA: the GD group showed significant SIF effects for both negative and neutral materials with the direct inhibition method,while the control group showed nonsignificant SIF effects under all conditions;with thought substitution,both the GD group and the control group showed significant SIF effects under all conditions.The above results suggested that the GD group could intentionally forgetting negative materials through direct inhibition and thought substitution,while the effect of thought substitution was more significant.Based on study 2,study 3 aimed to investigate the lasting effects of intentional forgetting in GD individuals.After completing the immediate test,participants were asked to recall targets associated with cues at delays of one day and one month.Six participants disengaged from the study for personal reasons,making a total of 66 participants with 33 in the GD group and 33 in the control group.The results showed that:(1)in the one-day delayed test,GD individuals did not show a SIF effect for the negative materials with direct inhibition;with thought substitution,GD individuals showed a significant SIF effect for the negative materials;(2)in the one-month delayed test,both groups showed significant rebound effects on forgetting negative materials through direct inhibition(the accuracy of no-think trials was significantly higher than that of the baseline trials),while only the GD group showed a rebound effect on forgetting negative materials through thought substitution.In conclusion,the present study applied intentional forgetting to GD and found that thought substitution was a relatively effective method in forgetting negative materials for GD individuals,and also showed better lasting effects.This study could not be called an intervention for GD,but the idea of substitution derived from this study is a new path of GD intervention.It is hoped that this study would open a new door for GD intervention.