Balloon Popping Task

Background

The Balloon Popping Task (BPT) is an Extinction Learning Task for children ages 1-3. It was published by Killian Semmelmann and colleagues in 2016 as part of a larger study on the utility of tablet and smartphone use in cognitive research in developmental psychology. The BPT runs a simple task in which young children are asked to pop as many balloons that fly up on the screen as they can within a certain period. The task investigates Extinction Learning which refers to the decrease in a behavior after a period of non-reinforcement. To this end, the BPT runs three learning phases: The first phase is the baseline learning phase. During this phase up to 6 balloons of two different colors (e.g. yellow and red) constantly fly up from the bottom of the screen to the top. Participants learn to pop the balloons simply by touching them. Once popped, a new balloon will rise from the bottom, so that there are always 6 balloons on the screen at any one point. During the second stage, participants can still pop balloons but only of one specific color (e.g. yellow). Balloons of the other color (e.g. red) don't respond to touch anymore. This stage is referred to as the 'Extinction Learning Phase'. A different background (e.g. a night sky) gives a visual clue that something has changed. The third phase of the task repeats the same setting and task of the first phase and is referred to as the 'Re-Learning Phase'. Both balloon colors are again responsive to touch and can be popped.

Task Procedure

The Millisecond BPT can be run with 1 to 6 balloons on the screen and the travel time it takes for balloons to reach the top can be adjusted by test administrators. One small practice phase during which one single magenta balloon flies up from the bottom is run to familiarize participants with the general popping task by touch. Each time a balloon is popped, it explodes visually and with a popping sound.

Each of the three test stages (Learning, Extinction, Re-Learning) takes 90 seconds. The Learning and Re-Learning stage present the balloons on a blue sky background. The Extinction phase uses a darker night-sky instead. The two colors of the balloons are selected randomly from 4 possible ones (blue,green,red,yellow) and randomly assigned to the poppable and un-poppable role during extinction.

The script calculates the horizontal coordinates for up to 6 tracks that can be used to fly balloons. At the start of a phase, each balloon is randomly assigned to one of these tracks. The vertical screen coordinates are randomly jiggled to start at different points below the screen, so that the very first balloons don't appear on screen at exactly the same time. Replacement balloons are randomly assigned to any track with the constraint that a minimum distance (calculated based on image height) to another balloon in the same track has to be maintained.

What it Measures

The Balloon Popping Task (BPT) is an Extinction Learning Task for children ages 1-3.

Psychological domains

• Operant Conditioning: Learning a positive association by popping any balloon through reinforcement.
• Extinction Learning: Decrease in a behavior after a period of non-reinforcement

Main Performance Metrics

• Proportion of popping attempts: Difference of popping attempts during the three stages for the target color (expected to decline over Extinction Phase)
• Popping Intervals: Popping intervals (in ms), separate for target and non-target balloons during the three stages (popping intervals for targets during Extinction expected to drop compared to non-targets)

Psychiatric Conditions

The Balloon Popping Task remains a specialized task primarily featured in broader developmental academic research.

References

Search Google Scholar for peer-reviewed, published research using the Inquisit Balloon Popping Task.

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Semmelmann, K., Nordt, M., Sommer, K., Röhnke, R., Mount, L., Prüfer, H., Terwiel, S., Meissner, T. W., Koldewyn, K., & Weigelt, S. (2016). U Can Touch This: How Tablets Can Be Used to Study Cognitive Development. Frontiers in Psychology, 7, 1021–1021. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2016.01021

Liu, C., & Hwang, G.-J. (2020). Roles and research trends of touchscreen mobile devices in early childhood education: review of journal publications from 2010 to 2019 based on the technology-enhanced learning model. Interactive Learning Environments, ahead-of-print(ahead-of-print), 1–20. https://doi.org/10.1080/10494820.2020.1855210

Bignardi, G., Dalmaijer, E. S., Anwyl-Irvine, A., & Astle, D. E. (2021). Collecting big data with small screens: Group tests of children’s cognition with touchscreen tablets are reliable and valid. Behavior Research Methods, 53(4), 1515–1529. https://doi.org/10.3758/s13428-020-01503-3