Associate Professor Paul Delfabbro
Room 506, Hughes Building |  |
Course Coordinator Honours
Area of Research
Human Cognition and Applied Decision Making.
Senior Appointments and Memberships
Senior Lecturer.
National Association for Gambling Studies.
Australian Psychological Society.
Member of Health, Disability and Lifespan Development Centre
Awards
George Fraser Scholarship (No. 1 ranked scholarship applicant at the University in 1993).
Psychology Research Interests
Gambling and the role of cognitive and behavioural factors in the maintenance of within-session behaviour. Although many studies have suggested that cognitive factors (irrational thoughts, heuristics and biases) may play a role in gambling, less attention has been given to the role of learning principles in gambling. Using computer simulations, my current research is examining how variations in reinforcement schedules, reinforcement frequency and magnitudes influence decision-making and behaviour.
Foster care and issues such as the predictors of reunification, the effect of placement movements upon well-being, the perceived effects of parental contact, and the additional economic costs of placing difficult children into care.
Programs relating to children with challenging behaviours in out of home care.
Learning theory and the issue of contingency and the illusion of control. Several research projects which I have supervised have examined Matute's (1994) (Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology) contention that people are more likely to develop an illusion of control when presented with a non-contingent without failure feedback, rather than learned helplessness and performance deficits. My other interest in learning theory relates to the use of behavioural schedules as a method of measuring people's ability to gauge duration, and also the effects of distraction on temporally-based schedules.
Adolescent gambling and the relationship between early adolescent adjustment, attitudes and early employment outcomes.
Recent Key Publications
Delfabbro, P.H., Borgas, M., & King, D. (2011, in press). Venue staff knowledge of their patrons’ gambling and problem gambling. Journal of Gambling Studies.
Balzan, R., Delfabbro, P., & Galletly, C., & Woodward, T. (2012, in press). Reasoning heuristics across the psychosis continuum: The contribution of hypersalient evidence-hypothesis matches. Cognitive Neuropsychiatry.
McCormick, J., Delfabbro, P., & Denson, L. (2011, in press). Psychological vulnerability and problem gambling: An application of Durand Jacobs' general theory of addictions to electronic gaming machine playing in Australia. Journal of Gambling Studies.
King, D., Delfabbro, P., Griffiths, M,. & Gradisar, M. (2011). Internet addiction treatment: A systematic review and CONSORT evaluation. Clinical Psychology Review, 31, 1110-1116.
Delfabbro, P.H., Hirte, C., Rogers, N., & Wilson, R. (2010). The over-representation of young indigenous people in the South Australian child system: A longitudinal analysis. Children and Youth Services Review, 32, 1418-1425.
