Script Author: Katja Borchert, Ph.D. (katjab@millisecond.com), Millisecond
Created: January 31, 2014
Last Modified: January 02, 2025 by K. Borchert (katjab@millisecond.com), Millisecond
Script Copyright © Millisecond Software, LLC
This script runs the Inquisit implementation of the Cake Gambling Task, a child-friendly version of the Cambridge Gambling Task, a decision-making and risk-taking behavioral task. The Cake Gambling Task was introduced by Van Leijenhorst et al (2008).
The Inquisit implementation is written for touchscreens but can also be used with the mouse.
Van Leijenhorst L, Westenberg PM, & Crone EA. (2008). A developmental study of risky decisions on the cake gambling task: age and gender analyses of probability estimation and reward evaluation. Dev Neuropsychol, 33(2):179-96
Van Leijenhorst L et al (2010). Adolescent risky decision-making: Neurocognitive development of reward and control regions. NeuroImage, 51, 345–355
12 minutes
Computer presents a cake with 6 pieces. A varying number of pieces are chocolate (brown) and strawberry (pink) pieces. The computer picks one of these slices at random. The task is to bet coins on whether the computer will select a chocolate or a strawberry piece. The number of coins that can be bet on strawberry/chocolate predictions are presented on the bottom of the screen. The participant has to select the preferred option via pressing the response boxes.
Strawberry pieces and chocolate pieces are associated with low and high risk bets, respectively (counterbalanced). The number of coins bet on the low risk flavor stays the same throughout (default: 1 coin); the number of coins bet on the high risk flavor changes.
If the computer selects the chosen flavor, the participant earns all the coins bet. If the computer selects the other flavor, the participant loses all the coins bet by default (can be changed under Editable Parameters). If the participants does not select a flavor in time, the script treats the trial as a bet on the losing flavor.
• By default, script runs 3 ratios: 3(low risk):3(high risk), 4(low risk):2(high risk), 5(low risk):1(high risk)
(if only specific ratios should be run, go to section BLOCKS and follow instructions)
• By default, script runs 5 coin bets for the riskier flavor: 1, 3, 5, 7, 9
(numbers can be changed under section Editable Parameters)
• assignment of flavor to low/high risk option as well as
location of high risk/low risk response keys (right or left) is counterbalanced by groupnumber
(=> 4 groupnumbers; more info under section EXPT)
Practice Block:
• 15 practice trials => runs each of the ratio x coin bets once
• order is selected at random
Test Block:
• 270 trials => each combination of ratios x coin bets is run 18 times
• order is selected at random
• after a sequence of 90 trials (default) a rest trial of 1 min rest (default) is presented
Trial Sequence:
-> blank screen (1000ms, default)
-> Cake Presentation without response signal (3000ms, default)
-> Cake Presentation WITH response signal (2000ms)*
-> blank screen (default 0ms)
-> Feedback
!!! if participant does not make a choice within the given timeframe, this script assumes the
losing flavor/bet was chosen
The provided instructions are not original to Van Leijenhorst et al (2008).
Most instructions are provided by Millisecond in htm format. Changes to the instructions can be made
directly to the htm files.
After instructions and before the practice trials, one demo trial is run which could be used to
go through the task with participants.
File Name: cakegamblingtask_summary*.iqdat
| Name | Description |
|---|---|
| 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 |
| punishment | True (1)= if gamble is lost the coins bet will be subtracted from total (parameter) false (0) = if gamble is lost the coins bet will not be subtracted from total |
| highRiskColor | The color assigned to the high risk |
| highRiskPosition | The screen position of the high risk choice (left vs. right) |
| lowRiskColor | The color assigned to the low risk |
| lowRiskPosition | The screen position of the low risk choice (left vs. right) |
| totalWinnings | Stores the total amount of money won |
| propNoDecision | Proportion of trials in which participant did not make a choice |
| propRisky51A | Proportion risky choices for 5:1 odds with risk awards A (lowest) |
| propRisky51B | Proportion risky choices for 5:1 odds with risk awards B |
| propRisky51C | Proportion risky choices for 5:1 odds with risk awards C |
| propRisky51D | Proportion risky choices for 5:1 odds with risk awards D |
| propRisky51E | Proportion risky choices for 5:1 odds with risk awards E (highest) |
| propRisky42A | Proportion risky choices for 4:2 odds with risk awards A (lowest) |
| propRisky42B | Proportion risky choices for 4:2 odds with risk awards B |
| propRisky42C | Proportion risky choices for 4:2 odds with risk awards C |
| propRisky42D | Proportion risky choices for 4:2 odds with risk awards D |
| propRisky42E | Proportion risky choices for 4:2 odds with risk awards E (highest) |
| propRisky33A | Proportion risky choices for 3:3 odds with risk awards A (lowest) even for ratio 3:3, the selection of the color that is associated with higher risk is still counted as "risky" |
| propRisky33B | Proportion risky choices for 3:3 odds with risk awards B |
| propRisky33C | Proportion risky choices for 3:3 odds with risk awards C |
| propRisky33D | Proportion risky choices for 3:3 odds with risk awards D |
| propRisky33E | Proportion risky choices for 3:3 odds with risk awards E (highest) |
File Name: cakegamblingtask_raw*.iqdat
| Name | Description |
|---|---|
| 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 |
| punishment | True (1)= if gamble is lost the coins bet will be subtracted from total (parameter) false (0) = if gamble is lost the coins bet will not be subtracted from total |
| highRiskColor | The color assigned to the high risk |
| highRiskPosition | The screen position of the high risk choice (left vs. right) |
| lowRiskColor | The color assigned to the low risk |
| lowRiskPosition | The screen position of the low risk choice (left vs. right) |
| 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. |
| countTrials | Custom trial counter |
| ratio | "5:1", "4:2", "3:3" |
| parameters.lowRiskGambleReward | Constant money awarded for a low risk gamble (parameter) |
| highRiskGambleReward | The monetary reward associated with the risky gamble for the current trial |
| stimulusItem | The presented stimuli in order of trial presentation |
| response | The participant's response (highRiskChoice vs. lowRiskChoice) |
| latency | The response latency in ms (measured from onset of response signal) |
| responseCategory | Categorization of pressed response key into "high risk" vs. "low risk" (or "did not choose") |
| winningwedge | Number of the wedge that was selected by computer |
| riskWinningwedge | Whether the winning wedge was of the low or high risk flavor (low vs. high) |
| gambleOutcome | 1 = participant wins the gamble 2 = participant loses the gamble |
| totalWinnings | Stores the total amount of money won across all trials |
The procedure can be adjusted by setting the following parameters.
| Name | Description | Default |
|---|---|---|
Timing Parameters |
||
| iti | Presentation duration (in ms) of the (blank) intertrial period | 500 |
| stimulusDuration | Max. presentation duration (in ms) of the stimulus | 5000 |
| responseSignal | Time after onset of stimulus, that the response signal ('?') is presented stimulus is presented for 5000ms; after 3000ms a '?' is presented at which time, participants were asked to make their choice | 3000 |
| waitDuration | Time (in ms) between offset of stimuli and onset of feedback | 500 |
| restDuration | Duration (in ms) of rest | 60000 |
Design Parameters |
||
| lowRiskGambleReward | Monetary reward for lowRiskGamble | 0 |
| highRiskGambleRewardA | Monetary reward for highRiskGamble A | 0 |
| highRiskGambleRewardB | Monetary reward for highRiskGamble B | 2 |
| highRiskGambleRewardC | Monetary reward for highRiskGamble C | 4 |
| highRiskGambleRewardD | Monetary reward for highRiskGamble D | 6 |
| highRiskGambleRewardE | Monetary reward for highRiskGamble E all monetary rewards get increased by 1 automatically during runtime | 8 |
| restsafterTrials | Number of 90 trials after which a short rest is introduced by default this script runs 270 trials | 90 |
| punishment | True = if gamble is lost the coins bet will be subtracted from total (default) false = if gamble is lost the coins bet will not be subtracted from total | true |
| showTotalCoins | True = the screen displays the participant's winnings during all trials false = the total winnings are not displayed during the trials | true |