PEBL Hub — IRB Fact Sheet — 2026-08-23
Bechara's (Iowa) Gambling Task
Category:Risk & Decision Making
Duration:~12 minutes
Parameters:7 configurable parameters available
Version:1.0
Input:Mouse
Description
PEBL's "Bechara Gambling Task": an independent implementation of Bechara et al.'s so-called "Iowa Gambling Task". Choose which option and receive rewards and costs. This version, by Peter Bull, is a substantial improvement over the original PEBL test, which is still available as iowa-old.pbl if needed.
Subjects start with $2000. On each trial, they choose one of four decks (by hitting 1-4 on the keyboard or clicking with mouse). Each card provides a reward; some cards also include a penalty. The penalty/reward structure is identical to Bechara et al., with 40 cards per deck. The task completes after 100 cards have been selected.
Notes
- This task is not officially endorsed by A. Bechara, A. Damasio, or any other researchers or organizations affiliated with the Iowa Gambling Task.
- Unlike the real-world version, the deck rotates on each draw (top card moves to bottom of 40-card deck), so the sequence repeats after 40 cards rather than becoming exhausted.
Key Parameters
| numtrials | Number of trials to use. Note that there are 40 cards in each deck=120, and so cards get rotated without being shuffled if used up (default: 100) |
| UseMouse | Should we use the mouse (use=1;don't use=0 for the keyboard) (default: 1) |
| shuffledecks | whether decks should be shuffled. Shuffling happens in epochs of size 10, to maintain the reward structure within sets of 10. The default is off (default: 0) |
| startvalue | Starting money (default: 2000) |
| rewarddelay | How long should the reward feedback take? (default: 2000) |
| penaltydelay | How long should the reward feedback take? (default: 2000) |
| playsounds | Should sounds be played? (default: 1) |
Example Data Output (3 sample rows)
| subNum | version | trialnum | chosendeck | win | lose | net | totalscore | borrow | time | rt |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| P001 | V2 | 1 | D | 50 | 0 | 50 | 2050 | 2000 | 16551 | 1307 |
| P001 | V2 | 2 | C | 50 | 0 | 50 | 2100 | 2000 | 19664 | 607 |
| P001 | V2 | 3 | B | 100 | 0 | 100 | 2200 | 2000 | 22711 | 544 |
References
Bechara, A., Damasio, A. R., Damasio, H., & Anderson, S. W. (1994). Insensitivity to future consequences following damage to human prefrontal cortex. Cognition, 50(1-3), 7-15.
Bull, P. N., Tippett, L. J., & Addis, D. R. (2015). Decision making in healthy participants on the Iowa Gambling Task: new insights from an operant approach. Frontiers in Psychology, 6, 391.