Iowa Gambling Task

Risk & Decision Making Duration: ~12 minutes
Iowa Gambling Task screenshot

System Requirements

🖥️
Screen Size:
Minimum: 800×600
Recommended: 1280×800
🖱️
Mouse required (touchpad OK)
🔊
Audio recommended
⚠️
Color discrimination required
May be challenging for colorblind participants

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.

About This Test

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.

Test Details

Test ID:
iowa
Main File:
iowa.pbl
Parameters:
7 configurable parameters

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Scientific Background

Original Task References:

These references describe the original task that this PEBL implementation is based on.

  • 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.

PEBL-Specific References:

These studies used the PEBL version of this task.

  • 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.

Data Output

Data saved with columns: subNum (participant code), version (task version), trialnum (trial number), chosendeck (deck chosen: A/B/C/D), win (reward amount), lose (penalty amount), net (win-lose), totalscore (running total bank value), borrow (initial amount), time (timestamp), rt (response time in ms). Each row represents one card choice.

About This Test

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.

Category: Risk & Decision Making
Estimated Duration: 12 minutes
Available Translations: 0 languages

Documentation Sources:
Test description file, Test implementation, Parameter schema

Documentation Status: Complete