___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Balloon Emotional Learning Task (BELT) (German instructions) ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ last updated: 06-12-2024 by K. Borchert (katjab@millisecond.com) for Millisecond Software, LLC Script Copyright © 06-12-2024 Millisecond Software German translations provided by K. Borchert for Millisecond Software ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ BACKGROUND INFO ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ This script implements the Balloon Emotional Learning Task (BELT), a measure of sensitivity to negative feedback and associative learning. The BELT is an extension of the Balloon Analogue Risk Task (BART, Lejuez et al, 2002). References: ///BART: Lejuez, C. W., Read, J. P., Kahler, C. W., Richards, J.B., Ramsey, S. E., Stuart, G. L., et al. (2002). Evaluation of a behavioral measure of risk-taking: The Balloon Analogue Risk Task (BART). Journal of Experimental Psychology: Applied, 8, 75–84. ///BELT: Humphreys, K. L., Telzer, E. H., Flannery, J., Goff, B., Gabard-Durnam, L., Gee, D. G., Lee, S. S., & Tottenham, N. (2016). Risky Decision Making From Childhood Through Adulthood: Contributions of Learning and Sensitivity to Negative Feedback. Emotion (Washington, D.C.), 16(1), 101–109. https://doi.org/10.1037/emo0000116 ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ TASK DESCRIPTION ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Participants are given 27 (default) balloons. For each balloon they get the choice to pump up the balloon or collect their winnings. For each successful pump, they can earn money. However, if a balloon pops before participants collect their potential winnings, they lose all their potential winnings for the current balloon. Balloons have three different colors in the BELT paradigm (currently: red, orange, magenta). Each color is associated with different explosion points: slow (takes longer to explode), variable (mixed), and quick (explodes quickly). The colors for each of these three balloon types can either be a) randomly assigned by this script (see editable parameters) or b) counterbalanced by using groupnumbers 1-6 ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ DURATION ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ the default set-up of the script takes appr. 7 minutes to complete ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ DATA OUTPUT DICTIONARY ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ The fields in the data files are: (1) Raw data file: 'belt_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 session: with the current session id quickExplodeIndex: the item index of the image assigned to be the Quick Explode Balloon quickExplodeColor: the color of the Quick Explode Balloon variableExplodeIndex: the item index of the image assigned to be the Variable Explode Balloon variableExplodeColor: the color of the Variable Explode Balloon slowExplodeIndex: the item index of the image assigned to be the Slow Explode Balloon slowExplodeColor: the color of the Slow Explode Balloon 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 such as feedback trials. Thus, trialNum may not reflect the number of main trials run per block. phase: 1 = first block of 9 trials (first third) 2 = second block of 9 trials (second third) 3 = third block of 9 trials (third third) balloonCount: running total of number of balloons balloonType: 1 = slow exploding balloon 2 = variable exploding balloon 3 = fast exploding balloon balloonColor: color of the current balloon balloonIndex: index of the current balloon explosionPoint: explosion point of the current balloon response: the participant's response latency: the response latency (in ms) pumpCount: number of times the participant presses the pump button for each balloon (resets for each balloon) pumpResult: the selected digit from list.pumpResult (1 = balloon explodes) totalEarnings: currently earned reward up to this point 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 (2) Summary data file: 'belt_summary*.iqdat' (a separate file for each participant) inquisit.version: Inquisit version run computer.platform: the platform the script was run on (win/mac/ios/android) startDate: date script was run startTime: time script was started subjectId: assigned subject id number groupId: assigned group id number sessionId: assigned session id number elapsedTime: time it took to run script (in ms); measured from onset to offset of script completed: 0 = script was not completed (prematurely aborted); 1 = script was completed (all conditions run) quickExplodeIndex: the item index of the image assigned to be the Quick Explode Balloon quickExplodeColor: the color of the Quick Explode Balloon variableExplodeIndex: the item index of the image assigned to be the Variable Explode Balloon variableExplodeColor: the color of the Variable Explode Balloon slowExplodeIndex: the item index of the image assigned to be the Slow Explode Balloon slowExplodeColor: the color of the Slow Explode Balloon totalEarnings: sums up the earnings across balloons balloonCount: running total of number of balloons ->balloonCount1 etc ->separate measures for the first third (phase1: trials 1-9), the second third (phase2: trials 10-18), and the last third (phase3: trials 19-27) totalExplosions: the number of exploded balloons -> totalExplosions1 etc: ->separate measures for the first third (phase1: trials 1-9), the second third (phase2: trials 10-18), and the last third (phase3: trials 19-27) nonExplodedBalloons: the number of balloons out of (default) 30 that did NOT explode ->nonExplodedBalloons1 etc: ->separate measures for the first third (phase1: trials 1-9), the second third (phase2: trials 10-18), and the last third (phase3: trials 19-27) totalPumpCount: total number of times the participant presses the pump button across all balloons (includes exploded balloons) -> totalPumpcount1 etc: ->separate measures for the first third (phase1: trials 1-9), the second third (phase2: trials 10-18), and the last third (phase3: trials 19-27) averagePumpCount: the mean average pump count (includes exploded balloons) -> averagePumpcount1 etc: ->separate measures for the first third (phase1: trials 1-9), the second third (phase2: trials 10-18), and the last third (phase3: trials 19-27) adjustedTotalPumpCount: sums up the pumps of balloons that did not explode -> adjustedTotalPumpcount1 etc.: ->separate measures for the first 10, the second 10, and the last 10 balloons adjustedAveragePumpCount: mean number of pumps only of balloons that did not explode (=Main Dependent Variable) -> adjustedAveragePumpcount1 etc: ->separate measures for the first 10, the second 10, and the last 10 balloons Note: the lower the number the more risk averse the participant All above variables also by balloonType: s: Slow v: Variable q: Quick example: totalEarningsS: total earnings from SLOW explosion point balloons totalEarningsV: total earnings from VARIABLE explosion point balloons totalEarningsQ: total earnings from QUICK explosion point balloons ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ EXPERIMENTAL SET-UP ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ * 27 ballons to pump up -> phase1: 9 balloons (3 of each type, all three variable explosion points run) -> phase2: 9 balloons (3 of each type, all three variable explosion points run) -> phase3: 9 balloons (3 of each type, all three variable explosion points run) * each (successful) pump increases the possible winnings gained from this balloon Determination of Explosionpoints: fixed by balloon type (quick, variable, slow) -> check list.quickExplosionPoint/list.variableExplostionPoint/list.slowExplosionPoint * participant can decide whether to "collect" the winnings 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 balloon no money will be won from the popped balloon. Further, participants are alerted to the fact that balloons may pop at different times. *after 27 balloons have been pumped, the experiment is over, and participants can collect their total winnings ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ INSTRUCTIONS ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Instructions can be easily 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: / totalBalloons = 27 //Number of balloons: Default is 27 / pumpValue = 0.05 //Payoff per pump: Default is $0.05 / balloonSizeIncrement = 0.01 //Ballon size increment in scale proportion to the original image / showPumpCount = true //Show current pump count //true: pump count is shown to participant (default) //false: pump count is not shown to participant / showBalloonCount = true //Show current balloon count: //true: ballon count is shown to participant (default) //false: ballon count is not shown to participant / showPotentialEarnings = true //Show potential earnings for the current balloon (default) / assignColorsAtRandom = false //true = the script assigns the colors of the 'slow', 'variable', 'quick' explosion point //balloons at random //false = the script does not randomly assign the colors. Use groupnumbers 1-6 //to counterbalance all possible six color assignments