Return to the Hungry Donkey Task page
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Hungry Donkey Task
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Script Author: David Nitz (dave@millisecond.com) for Millisecond Software, LLC
last updated: 12-13-2019 by K. Borchert (katjab@millisecond.com) for Millisecond Software, LLC
Script Copyright © 12-13-2019 Millisecond Software
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
BACKGROUND INFO
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
This script implements the 'Hungry Donkey Task', a child friendly Iowa Gambling Task.
The task assesses risk learning utilizing rewards and punishment in an uncertain simulated
real-life decision making context.
The implememted procedure is described in:
Crone, E. A., & van der Molen, M. W. (2004). Developmental changes in real life decision
making: Performance on a gambling task previously shown to depend on the ventromedial
prefrontal cortex. Developmental Neuropsychology, 25(3), 251-279.
The picture stimuli used in this task were adapted from the open source PEBL Test Battery
available at 'http://pebl.sourceforge.net'.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
TASK DESCRIPTION
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
The goal of the game is to collect as many apples as possible for a hungry donkey.
The apples can be found behind 4 doors. Each door can either offer apples (reward) or take apples
away (punishment) or both at the same time. The 4 doors are tied to 4 different reinforcement
schedules: two of the doors offer overall more apples than take them away (advantageous doors);
two doors overall take more apples than offer them (disadvantageous doors).
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
DURATION
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
the default set-up of the script takes appr. 20 minutes to complete
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
DATA FILE INFORMATION
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
The default data stored in the data files are:
(1) Raw data file: 'hungrydonkeytask_raw*.iqdat' (a separate file for each participant)
build: The specific Inquisit version used (the 'build') that was run
computer.platform: the platform the script was run on (win/mac/ios/android)
date, time, date and time script was run
subject, group, with the current subject/groupnumber
script.sessionid: with the current session id
blockcode, blocknum: the name and number of the current block (built-in Inquisit variable)
trialcode, trialnum: the name and number of the currently recorded trial (built-in Inquisit variable)
Note: trialnum is a built-in Inquisit variable; it counts all trials run; even those
that do not store data to the data file.
doorsselected: Running count of the number of doors selected by the subject.
latency: the response latency (in ms)
response: the participant's response (selected door)
currentgain: Amount of apples gained in a given trial.
currentloss: Amount of apples lost in a given trial.
total: total earned
globalgain: Amount of apples gained across the whole task with separate
counts for standard and reversed version.
globalloss: Amout of apples lost across the whole task with separate
counts for standard and reversed version.
dooragain: Amount of apples gained across the whole task for Door A with
separate counts for standard and reversed version.
dooraloss: Amount of apples lost across the whole task for Door A with
separate counts for standard and reversed version.
doorbgain: Amount of apples gained across the whole task for Door B with
separate counts for standard and reversed version.
doorbloss: Amount of apples lost across the whole task for Door B with
separate counts for standard and reversed version.
doorcgain: Amount of apples gained across the whole task for Door C with
separate counts for standard and reversed version.
doorcloss: Amount of apples lost across the whole task for Door C with
separate counts for standard and reversed version.
doordgain: Amount of apples gained across the whole task for Door D with
separate counts for standard and reversed version.
doordloss: Amount of apples lost across the whole task for Door D with
separate counts for standard and reversed version.
doorahposition: Horizontal screen position for Door A and associated elements
assigned by 'trial.doorpositions' and 'list.doorpositions' at block
onset. By default, doors are positioned in alphabetical order from
left to right (A->B->C->D). See comments for 'list.doorpositions'
for further details.
doorbhposition: Horizontal screen position for Door B and associated elements
assigned by 'trial.doorpositions' and 'list.doorpositions' at block
onset. By default, doors are positioned in alphabetical order from
left to right (A->B->C->D). See comments for 'list.doorpositions'
for further details.
doorchposition: Horizontal screen position for Door C and associated elements
assigned by 'trial.doorpositions' and 'list.doorpositions' at block
onset. By default, doors are positioned in alphabetical order from
left to right (A->B->C->D). See comments for 'list.doorpositions'
for further details.
doordhposition: Horizontal screen position for Door D and associated elements
assigned by 'trial.doorpositions' and 'list.doorpositions' at block
onset. By default, doors are positioned in alphabetical order from
left to right (A->B->C->D). See comments for 'list.doorpositions'
for further details.
parameters.trackingcondition: Adjustable parameter to switch between three different feedback
tracking conditions (i.e. which feedback bars are available).
'1' -> Display global and local feedback.
'2' -> Display only global feedback.
'3' -> Display no visual feedback at all.
(2) Summary data file: 'hungrydonkeytask_summary*.iqdat' (a separate file for each participant)
computer.platform: the platform the script was run on (win/mac/ios/android)
script.startdate: date script was run
script.starttime: time script was started
script.subjectid: assigned subject id number
script.groupid: assigned group id number
script.sessionid: assigned session id number
script.elapsedtime: time it took to run script (in ms); measured from onset to offset of script
script.completed: 0 = script was not completed (prematurely aborted);
1 = script was completed (all conditions run)
total: total earned
globalgain: Amount of apples gained across the whole task with separate
counts for standard and reversed version.
globalloss: Amout of apples lost across the whole task with separate
counts for standard and reversed version.
dooragain: Amount of apples gained across the whole task for Door A with
separate counts for standard and reversed version.
dooraloss: Amount of apples lost across the whole task for Door A with
separate counts for standard and reversed version.
doorbgain: Amount of apples gained across the whole task for Door B with
separate counts for standard and reversed version.
doorbloss: Amount of apples lost across the whole task for Door B with
separate counts for standard and reversed version.
doorcgain: Amount of apples gained across the whole task for Door C with
separate counts for standard and reversed version.
doorcloss: Amount of apples lost across the whole task for Door C with
separate counts for standard and reversed version.
doordgain: Amount of apples gained across the whole task for Door D with
separate counts for standard and reversed version.
doordloss: Amount of apples lost across the whole task for Door D with
separate counts for standard and reversed version.
doorahposition: Horizontal screen position for Door A and associated elements
assigned by 'trial.doorpositions' and 'list.doorpositions' at block
onset. By default, doors are positioned in alphabetical order from
left to right (A->B->C->D). See comments for 'list.doorpositions'
for further details.
doorbhposition: Horizontal screen position for Door B and associated elements
assigned by 'trial.doorpositions' and 'list.doorpositions' at block
onset. By default, doors are positioned in alphabetical order from
left to right (A->B->C->D). See comments for 'list.doorpositions'
for further details.
doorchposition: Horizontal screen position for Door C and associated elements
assigned by 'trial.doorpositions' and 'list.doorpositions' at block
onset. By default, doors are positioned in alphabetical order from
left to right (A->B->C->D). See comments for 'list.doorpositions'
for further details.
doordhposition: Horizontal screen position for Door D and associated elements
assigned by 'trial.doorpositions' and 'list.doorpositions' at block
onset. By default, doors are positioned in alphabetical order from
left to right (A->B->C->D). See comments for 'list.doorpositions'
for further details.
parameters.trackingcondition: Adjustable parameter to switch between three different feedback
tracking conditions (i.e. which feedback bars are available).
'1' -> Display global and local feedback.
'2' -> Display only global feedback.
'3' -> Display no visual feedback at all.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
EXPERIMENTAL SET-UP
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
2 conditions (standard, reverse), tested within-subjects, order is counterbalanced by groupnumber aassignment
=> 200 trials in each block
Standard: Doors C, D are advantageous (across 10 draws: gain of 10 apples); doors A, B are disadvantageous (across 10 draws: loss of 10 apples)
Reverse: Doors C, D are disadvantageous; doors A, B are advantageous
win/loss amounts of apples are sampled randomly from a list of 10 possible outcomes that are different for each door.
After 10 selections, the lists reset.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
STIMULI
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
The picture stimuli used in this task were adapted from the open source PEBL Test Battery
available at 'http://pebl.sourceforge.net'.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
INSTRUCTIONS
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
The instructions can be edited under section Editable Instructions
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
EDITABLE CODE
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
check below for (relatively) easily editable parameters, stimuli, instructions etc.
Keep in mind that you can use this script as a template and therefore always "mess" with the entire code
to further customize your experiment.
The parameters you can change are:
feedbackduration: Duration of trial feedback in milliseconds. The original task used
2000 ms.
trackingcondition: Adjustable parameter to switch between three different feedback
tracking conditions (i.e. which feedback bars are available).
'1' -> Display global and local feedback.
'2' -> Display only global feedback.
'3' -> Display no visual feedback at all.
runstandard: Pseudo-boolean switch to easily (de)activate the task's standard
version. '1' will run the standard version, '0' will skip the standard
block. By default, both standard and reversed version of the task
are run in counterbalanced order.
runreversed: Pseudo-boolean switch to easily (de)activate the task's reversed
version. '1' will run the reversed version, '0' will skip the reversed
block. By default, both standard and reversed version of the task
are run in counterbalanced order.