The notion that an unusual run of events, say a coin coming up heads five times in a row, indicates a likelihood of a change on the next event to conform with the expected average (e.g., that tails is more likely than heads on the next toss). The reason, gamblers say, is the law of averages. They are wrong. The gambler’s fallacy was examined by Jarvik (1951).</P>
<ul>
  <li>Jarvik, M. E. (1951), “Probability learning and negative recency effect in the serial anticipation of alternative symbols,” <I>Journal of 
Experimental Psychology</I>, 291-297.</li>
</ul>