Balloon Analogue Risk Task for Youth - BART-Y

Technical Manual

Credits:
Millisecond thanks Dr. Lejuez and collegues for providing general assistance
and the original explosion point sequence!

Script is based on BART.iqjs by Millisecond
and the original explosion point sequence!

Last Modified: January 01, 2025 by K. Borchert (katjab@millisecond.com), Millisecond

Script Copyright © Millisecond Software, LLC

Background

A script that implements the Youth Version of the Balloon Analogue Risk Task (BART-Y)This script implements the BART, a measure of impulsivity and risk aversion, as described in Lejuez et al (2007).

References

Lejuez, C.W., Aklin, W., Daughters, S. & Zvolensky, M. (2007). Reliability and Validitiy of the Youth Version of the Balloon Analogue Risk Task (BART-Y) in the Assessment of Risk Taking Behavior Among Inner-city Adolescents. Journal of Clinicial Child and Adolescent Behavior, 36, 106-111

Duration

8.5 minutes

Description

Participants are given 30 (default) balloons. For each balloon they get the choice to pump up the balloon or collect their winnings. For each successful pump, their winnings can increase. However, if a balloon pops before participants collect their potential winnings, they lose all their potential winnings for the current balloon.

Procedure

• 30 ballons to pump up (default)
• each (successful) pump increases the possible reward gained from this balloon
• participant can decide whether to "collect" the reward (aka fill a reward meter) or keep pumping to increase the
reward further. Participants are told that each balloon will explode at some point and that in the
case of an exploding balloons no reward can be added to the reward meter. Further, participants are alerted to
the fact that some balloons may explode after only 1 pump while others may fill up the entire screen before they explode.
•after 30 balloons have been pumped, the experiment is over, and participants are shown their final reward meter
as well as the total number of successful pumps (pumps on exploded balloons are excluded). Screenshots of the
final reward meter are saved in a separate folder.

Differences Between Adult Version (Lejuez Et Al, 2002) And Youth Version (Lejuez Et Al, 2007)
(1) Set-up:
Adult Version: offers monetary reward
Youth Version: offers a visual reward meter that can reach 4 levels of reward: small prize, medium prize, big prize, bonus prize.
At the end of the experiment, concrete rewards may be collected based on the level reached.

(2) Sequence of Explosion Points
Adult Version: in the adult version (Lejuez et al, 2002) the probability of a balloon exploding was set to be 1/128 on the first pump,
1/127 on the second pump and 1/1 on the 128th pump. The actual explosion point for a balloon was not known beforehand as it
was determined by the computer on runtime by randomly sampling from numbers between 1 and 128 without replacement. Once
the "1" was sampled, the explosion point was reached. The distribution of explosion points generated with such an algorithm
is determined to be normal with a mean of 64 (that is on average a balloon explodes after 64 pumps). Actual sample means
based on 30 balloons may differ from participant to participant.
(see Lejuez et al, 2002, for more detail).

Youth Version: in the youth version one pre-determined sequence of explosion points for all 30 balloons
is used for each participant. The sequence used in this script was generously provided by the original authors
(see Lejuez et al., 2007).
It meets the following criterion
1. the mean explosion point of the first 15 balloons was 64
2. the mean explosion point of the last 15 balloons was 64

Instructions

the instructions are provided by Millisecond. They are not original.
Edit under section Editable Instructions.

Summary Data

File Name: barty_summary*.iqdat

Data Fields

NameDescription
inquisit.version Inquisit version number
computer.platform Device platform: win | mac |ios | android
computer.touch 0 = device has no touchscreen capabilities; 1 = device has touchscreen capabilities
computer.hasKeyboard 0 = no external keyboard detected; 1 = external keyboard detected
startDate Date the session was run
startTime Time the session was run
subjectId Participant ID
groupId Group number
sessionId Session number
elapsedTime Session duration in ms
completed 0 = Test was not completed
1 = Test was completed
reward Returns the prize earned
(selects the next prize that could be reached)
Example: if meter is below Small Prize => "small"; if meter is below Middle Prize (but higher than Small) => "middle"
balloonCount Running total of number of balloons
balloonCount1 Separate measures for number of balloons for the first third (trials 1-10)
balloonCount2 Separate measures for number of balloons for the second third (trials 11-20)
balloonCount3 Separate measures for number of balloons for the last third (trials 21-30)
totalExplosions The number of exploded balloons
totalExplosions1 Separate measures for the number of totalExplosions for the first third (trials 1-10)
totalExplosions2 Separate measures for the number of totalExplosions for the second third (trials 11-20)
totalExplosions3 Separate measures for the number of totalExplosions for the last third (trials 21-30)
nonExplodedBalloons The number of balloons out of (default) 30 that did NOT explode
nonExplodedBalloons1 Separate measures for the number of nonExplodedBalloons for the first third (trials 1-10)
nonExplodedBalloons2 Separate measures for the number of nonExplodedBalloons for the second third (trials 11-20)
nonExplodedBalloons3 Separate measures for the number of nonExplodedBalloons for the last third (trials 21-30)
totalPumpCount Total number of times the participant presses the pump button across all balloons (includes exploded balloons)
totalPumpCount1 Separate measures for the first third (trials 1-10)
totalPumpCount2 Separate measures for the second third (trials 11-20)
totalPumpCount3 Separate measures for tthe last third (trials 21-30)
averagePumpCount The mean average pump count (includes exploded balloons)
averagePumpCount1 Separate measures for the mean average pump count for the first third (trials 1-10)
averagePumpCount2 Separate measures for the mean average pump count for the second third (trials 11-20)
averagePumpCount3 Separate measures for the mean average pump count for the last third (trials 21-30)
adjustedTotalPumpCount Sums up the pumps of balloons that did not explode
adjustedTotalPumpCount1 Separate measures for the pumps of balloons that did not explode for the first third (trials 1-10)
adjustedTotalPumpCount2 Separate measures for the pumps of balloons that did not explode for the second third (trials 11-20)
adjustedTotalPumpCount3 Separate measures for the pumps of balloons that did not explode for the last third (trials 21-30)
adjustedAveragePumpCount Mean number of pumps only of balloons that did not explode (=Main Dependent Variable)
the lower the number the more risk averse the participant
adjustedAveragePumpCount1 Separate measures for pumps only of balloons that did not explode for the first third (trials 1-10)
adjustedAveragePumpCount2 Separate measures for pumps only of balloons that did not explode for the second third (trials 11-20)
adjustedAveragePumpCount3 Separate measures for pumps only of balloons that did not explode for the last third (trials 21-30)
postExplosionAdjustmentScore Measures sensitivity to punishment/loss
Difference in the mean number of pumps after successful collection - mean number of pumps after explosions
=> positive: trials after explosions had on average lower pump counts (sensitive to punishment)
=> negative: trials after explosions had on average higher pump counts (sensitive to losses)
postExplosionAdjustmentScore1 Separate measures for the first third (trials 1-10)
postExplosionAdjustmentScore2 Separate measures for the second third (trials 11-20)
postExplosionAdjustmentScore3 Separate measures for the last third (trials 21-30)

Raw Data

File Name: barty_raw*.iqdat

Data Fields

NameDescription
build Inquisit version number
computer.platform Device platform: win | mac |ios | android
computer.touch 0 = device has no touchscreen capabilities; 1 = device has touchscreen capabilities
computer.hasKeyboard 0 = no external keyboard detected; 1 = external keyboard detected
date Date the session was run
time Time the session was run
subject Participant ID
group Group number
session Session number
blockcode The name the current block (built-in Inquisit variable)
blocknum The number of the current block (built-in Inquisit variable)
trialcode The name of the currently recorded trial (built-in Inquisit variable)
trialnum The number of the currently recorded trial (built-in Inquisit variable)
trialnum is a built-in Inquisit variable; it counts all trials run
even those that do not store data to the data file.
phase The total number of trials are divided into three phases (each contains a 1/3 of all trials)
phase1: trials1-10
phase2: trials11-20
phase3: trials21-30
number of trials in each phase depend on total number of balloons
balloonCount Running total of number of balloons
response The participant's response
latency The response latency (in ms)
explosionPoint Keeps track of the current balloon's explosion point, determined by list.explosionpoint (see below)
pumpCount Number of times the participant presses the pump button for each balloon (resets for each balloon)
timeBefore1stPump Time (in ms) before 1.pump
timeBeforeCollectWithoutPump Time (in ms) before collecting without pumping first
timeBtwLastPumpAndCollect Time (in ms) btw. last pump and collect
timeBtwPumps Time (in ms) between pumps (excluding time before first pump)
meanTimeBtwPumps Mean time between pumps for each balloon
reward Returns the prize earned (selects the next prize that could be reached)
Example: if meter is below Small Prize (bottom quarter)=> "small"; if meter is below Middle Prize (but higher than Small) => "middle"

Parameters

The procedure can be adjusted by setting the following parameters.

NameDescriptionDefault
totalBalloons Number of balloons: Default is 30
this script includes summary variables that distinguish between the first 1, the second 1, and the third 10 balloons.
30
balloonSizeIncrement Ballon size increment in scale proportion to the original image0.01
showPumpCount Show current pump count
true: pump count is shown to participant
false: pump count is not shown to participant
false
showBalloonCount Show current balloon count
true: ballon count is shown to participant
false: ballon count is not shown to participant
false
meterFraction 1 pump increases the reward by this fraction of the height of the reward meter 0.001