Despite growing recognition that impulsivity is associated with pathological gambling (PG), three methodological concerns continue to prevent a meaningful examination of how impulsivity is specifically associated with PG. First, the lack of studies specifically comparing PGs to less severe gamblers leaves the question of whether impulsivity was not also associated with less severe gamblers unexamined. Second, the inadequate control of confounding variables in most studies raises concerns about whether findings that impulsivity is associated with PG may be spurious. Third, many findings that impulsivity is associated with PG are based on unrelated definitions of impulsivity, and are therefore relatively uninformative. / The present series of studies is the first attempt to address all of these concerns at the same time. In terms of appropriate comparison groups, study 1 compared PGs to at-risk gamblers and social gamblers, and study 2 compared severe PGs to moderately severe PGs and social gamblers. In terms of adequate controls, both studies examined PGs who were not in treatment and representative in terms of comorbid drug use. In addition, both studies controlled for age, gender, education, socioeconomic status, psychiatric comorbidity, and general cognitive function. Study 2 furthermore controlled for depression, trait anxiety, aggression, and criminality. In terms of improving how impulsivity is examined, study 1 elaborated a neuroanatomically-based definition of impulsivity and examined how three hypothesized neuroanatomical components of impulsivity were associated with PG. In study 2, different operationalizations of impulsivity, based on the same definition of impulsivity, were examined regarding their association with PG. / Every measure that was directly related to the present definition of impulsivity was significantly associated with severe PGs, and only severe PGs, suggesting that severe PGs may comprise a distinct group of gamblers. Measures which were not directly related to this definition of impulsivity were not significantly different between severe PGs (or PGs in study 1) and less severe gamblers. Severe PGs performed as well or better than social gamblers on retention capacity and attention control measures of working memory. / In conclusion, the inability to inhibit inappropriate reward-seeking is argued to be a primary deficit of severe PGs in our sample.

衝動性購買在一般的消費行為中扮演著日趨重要的角色，衝動性購買是企業不可忽視的消費行為，有必要了解其產生原因。由於過去文獻大部分都只探討某些變數對衝動性購買的影響，缺乏完整性，因此本研究透過完整架構來探討消費者衝動性購買的原因。此外，不同於一般衝動性購買行為的相關研究，本研究設法進行跨通路比較，比較在實體通路與電視購物兩種不同通路型態消費者衝動性購買的原因是否不同。本研究資料分析是以LISREL來檢定相關研究假設，本研究多變項的研究架構正好適合用LISREL進行分析，以探討各變數間的影響關係。 經過實證分析的研究結果發現： 一. 在實體通路與電視購物兩種通路的衝動性購買行為影響因素並不完全相同，且影響效果也有所不同。 二. 衝動性購買是複雜的消費行為，容易受到眾多因素一起影響，並非只是單一變數的影響效果，且這些變數在體通路與電視購物兩種不同的通路也會有不同的影響效果。 三. 在實體通路與電視購物兩種通路，價格促銷優惠對衝動性購買行為的影響均不顯著，而非價格促銷優惠對衝動性購買行為的影響均顯著。 四. 在實體通路與電視購物兩種通路，通路品牌形象對店內瀏覽或收看購物頻道的影響均顯著。 五. 在電視購物通路，產品品牌形象愈良好，愈容易產生衝動性購買行為；在實體通路，產品品牌形象的影響不顯著。 六. 在實體通路，信用卡使用對購買衝動及衝動性購買行為都有顯著的影響；在電視購物通路，信用卡使用的影響不顯著。 七. 在實體通路與電視購物兩種通路，使用聯名信用卡對衝動性購買之影響力均高於一般信用卡。 八. 在實體通路與電視購物兩種通路，衝動性購買傾向對購買衝動的影響均非常顯著。 九. 在實體通路，店內瀏覽的投入程度愈高，愈容易產生衝動性購買行為；在電視購物通路，收看購物頻道的投入程度愈高，愈容易產生購買衝動，也愈容易產生衝動性購買。 / Abstract The role of impulsive buying is becoming more and more important in normal consumption behavior. Enterprise shouldn’t neglect this kind of consumer behavior. It is a worthwhile problem to investigate impulsive buying precursors. The past research usually focused on investigating the effects of only certain variables on impulsive buying. This kind of study is not complete. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to examine the cause of impulsive buying through complete structure. Besides, unlike other impulsive buying studies, this study tries to add the variable of channel. This study compares impulsive buying precursors in physical outlet and TV shopping channels. This study uses LISERAL program to examine hypotheses. By means of these studies, the conclusions of this research are summarized as follows： 1. Impulsive buying precursors are different in physical outlet and TV shopping channels. The effects of impulsive buying precursors are also different in these two channels. 2. Impulsive buying is a complicated consumption behavior. It is usually affected by many variables at the same time, not just one variable. Besides, the effects of these variables are different in physical outlet and TV shopping channels. 3. In physical outlet and TV shopping channels, the effect of price promotion on impulsive buying is not significant. 4. In both physical outlet and TV shopping channels, the effect of channel brand image on in-store browsing or TV shopping program watching is significant. 5. In TV shopping channel, the better the product brand image, the higher the likelihood of making an impulse purchase. In physical outlet channel, the effect of product brand image on impulsive buying is not significant. 6. In physical outlet channel, the effects of credit card use on felt urges to buy impulsively and impulsive buying are both significant. In TV shopping channel, the effects of credit card is not significant. 7. In physical outlet and TV shopping channels, the effect of co-brand credit card use on impulsive buying is more significant than regular credit card use. 8. In physical outlet and TV shopping channels, the effect of impulse buying tendency on impulsive buying is both very significant. 9. In physical outlet channel, the greater the level of in-store browsing, the greater the frequency of felt urges to buy impulsively. In TV shopping channel, the greater the level of TV shopping program watching, the greater the frequency of felt urges to buy impulsively.

Typescript (photocopy) / xxvi, 294 leaves ; 30 cm. / Title page, contents and abstract only. The complete thesis in print form is available from the University Library. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Adelaide, Dept. of Psychology, 1982

After defining the structure to a signal detection scheme, this dissertation describes and addresses some of the unresolved issues associated with its use when the interference encountered is impulsive. The alpha-stable (alpha-S) family of distributions is used as a model of this interference due to its physical interpretation and its general form. Despite its attractive features, difficulties arise in using this distribution due to, amongst other things, the lack of a general closed form expression for its probability density function. Relevant to the detection scheme used, this affects parameter estimation, signal detector design and goodness-of-fit tests. Significant contributions are made in the latter through the introduction of characteristic function based test that uses the parametric bootstrap. A modification of this test is then made to define a test of the level of impulsive behaviour - again the parametric bootstrap is employed to maintain levels of significance for this and another test based on testing the alpha-S parameter values. The performance of these tests is examined under simulated and two sources of real, impulsive data, namely human heart rate variability and fluctuations in stock prices. Once the appropriateness of the model assumption has been verified, the final, signal detection process may take place. Detectors based on the locally optimum criterion and approximations to it are described and compared to their rank-based counterparts. Results are presented that suggest compelling arguments based on performance and computational complexity for the consideration of rank-based techniques.Keywords: Impulsive behaviour, alpha-stable distribution, stable laws, Gaussianity testing, parameter estimation, goodness-of-fit, parametric bootstrap, signal detection, locally optimum detectors, rank-based detectors.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Alliant International University, San Francisco Bay, 2006. / Adviser: Rebecca Turner. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (BA(Hons) (Psychology)) - Faculty of Life and Social Sciences, Swinburne University of Technology, 2006. / "June 2006". A thesis is submitted in fulfillment of the requirements for the degree Bachelor of Arts (Honours), [Faculty of Life and Social Sciences], Swinburne University of Technology - 2006. Typescript.

Thesis (M.S.) -- Central Connecticut State University, 2008. / Thesis advisor: Damon Mitchell. "... in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science in Criminal Justice." Includes bibliographical references (leaves 27-29). Also available via the World Wide Web.

Thesis (M.S.)--University of Wisconsin--Madison, 1981. / Typescript. eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 42-51).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 1999. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 166-177). Available also in a digital version from Dissertation Abstracts.

Thesis (M.A.)--Carleton University, 1992. / Also available in electronic format on the Internet.