The HED Task Catalog is under development. IDs are not stable until formal release. Comments are welcome at github.com/hed-standard/hed-task/issues.

Balloon Analog Risk Task

HED task ID: hedtsk_balloon_analog_risk

Family: Reward, risk and value-based choice tasks

Also known as: BART, Balloon Task, Balloon Analog Risk

Sequential pumping of a virtual balloon for monetary reward with stochastic popping; average pumps per un-popped balloon indexes risk-taking.

Description

Participants inflate a virtual balloon by clicking a pump button, earning money with each pump. The balloon may explode at any point, causing loss of all accumulated earnings for that trial. Participants can cash out at any time to save their earnings. The average number of pumps before cashing out indexes risk-taking propensity. BART risk-taking correlates with real-world risky behaviors. fMRI reveals activation in ventromedial PFC, anterior insula, and striatal regions during risk assessment.

Inclusion test

An experiment is an instance of this task when its procedure matches, it manipulates at least one of the listed variables, and it records at least one of the listed measures.

Procedure

Participants sequentially pump a virtual balloon for incremental monetary reward; each pump risks the balloon popping and losing that trial’s earnings. They can stop and bank at any time.

Manipulation

Explosion probability function (risk schedule); reward per pump; number of trials.

Measurement

Adjusted average pumps on un-popped balloons (risk-taking index); total earnings; pump-by-pump decision sequences; response rate across trial segments.

Variations

Named versions that change what the participant experiences or does. The identifier of a variation is hedvar_<task>__<variation>.

Variation

Description

Justification

Standard BART (30 balloons)

hedvar_balloon_analog_risk__standard_bart_30_balloons

Pump button inflates balloon with increasing explosion probability.

Canonical BART: pump balloon for accumulating reward, risk of explosion

BART-Y (Youth Version)

hedvar_balloon_analog_risk__bart_y_youth_version

Simplified point system for children/adolescents.

Modified pumping interface and simplified feedback for youth; procedure adapted per §5.3

Variable Explosion Probability

hedvar_balloon_analog_risk__variable_explosion_probability

Different explosion point distributions (uniform, normal, skewed).

Explicitly communicated explosion probabilities; changes decision-making structure

High-Stakes vs. Low-Stakes

hedvar_balloon_analog_risk__high_stakes_vs_low_stakes

Varying reward amounts per pump.

Reward magnitude manipulation changes risk-reward trade-off context

Social Context BART

hedvar_balloon_analog_risk__social_context_bart

Playing in observed vs. private conditions.

Observer or peer performance information present; changes social decision-making context

Automatic BART

hedvar_balloon_analog_risk__automatic_bart

Participant selects desired number of pumps in advance; eliminates sequential decision-making.

Balloon pumps automatically; removes active pumping decision, isolates risk tolerance

BART with Loss Domain

hedvar_balloon_analog_risk__bart_with_loss_domain

Starting with balloon value that decreases with each pump; loss-frame analog.

Losses instead of gains; loss framing changes motivational structure of decisions

Cognitive processes

This task is designed to engage the following processes:

Key references

  • Lejuez, C. W., Read, J. P., Kahler, C. W., et al. (2002). Evaluation of a behavioral measure of risk taking: The Balloon Analogue Risk Task (BART). Journal of Experimental Psychology: Applied, 8(2), 75-84. (DOI, PubMed)

  • Rao, H., Korczykowski, M., Pluta, J., Hoang, A., & Detre, J. A. (2008). Neural correlates of voluntary and involuntary risk taking in the human brain. NeuroImage, 42(2), 902-910. (DOI, PubMed)

  • Schonberg, T., Fox, C. R., & Poldrack, R. A. (2011). Mind the gap: Bridging economic and naturalistic risk-taking with cognitive neuroscience. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 15(1), 11-19. (DOI, PubMed)

Further references

  • Pleskac, T. J. (2008). Decision making and learning while taking sequential risks. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 34(1), 167–185. (DOI, PubMed)

  • Wallsten, T. S., Pleskac, T. J., & Lejuez, C. W. (2005). Modeling behavior in a clinically diagnostic sequential risk-taking task. Psychological Review, 112(4), 862–880. (DOI, PubMed)

  • Hunt, M. K., Hopko, D. R., Bare, R., Lejuez, C. W., & Robinson, E. V. (2005). Construct validity of the Balloon Analog Risk Task (BART). Assessment, 12(4), 416–428. (DOI, PubMed)