Decision making in the Balloon Analogue Risk Task (BART): Anterior cingulate cortex signals loss aversion but not the infrequency of risky choices

The inferior frontal gyrus/anterior insula (IFG/AI) and anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) are key regions involved in risk appraisal during decision making, but accounts of how these regions contribute to decision making under risk remain contested. To help clarify the roles of these and other related regions, we used a modified version of the Balloon Analogue Risk Task (Lejuez et al., Journal of Experimental Psychology: Applied, 8, 75-84, 2002) to distinguish between decision-making and feedback-related processes when participants decided to pursue a gain as the probability of loss increased parametrically. Specifically, we set out to test whether the ACC and IFG/AI regions correspond to loss aversion at the time of decision making in a way that is not confounded with either reward-seeking or infrequency effects. When participants chose to discontinue inflating the balloon (win option), we observed greater ACC and mainly bilateral IFG/AI activity at the time of decision as the probability of explosion increased, consistent with increased loss aversion but inconsistent with an infrequency effect. In contrast, we found robust vmPFC activity when participants chose to continue inflating the balloon (risky option), consistent with reward seeking. However, in the cingulate and in mainly bilateral IFG regions, blood-oxygenation-level-dependent activation decreased when participants chose to inflate the balloon as the probability of explosion increased, findings that are consistent with a reduced loss aversion signal. Our results highlight the existence of distinct reward-seeking and loss-averse signals during decision making, as well as the importance of distinguishing between decision and feedback signals.     

Evaluation of a behavioral measure of risk taking: the Balloon Analogue Risk Task (BART)

The present study (N = 86) sought to evaluate a laboratory-based behavioral measure of risk taking (the Balloon Analogue Risk Task; BART) and to test associations between this measure and self-report measures of risk-related constructs as well as self-reported real-world risk behaviors. The BART evidenced sound experimental properties, and riskiness on the BART was correlated with scores on measures of sensation seeking, impulsivity, and deficiencies in behavioral constraint. Also, riskiness on the BART was correlated with the self-reported occurrence of addictive, health, and safety risk behaviors, with the task accounting for variance in these behaviors beyond that accounted for by demographics and self-report measures of risk-related constructs. These results indicate that the BART may be a useful tool in the assessment of risk taking.     

Framing alters risk-taking behavior on a modified Balloon Analogue Risk Task (BART) in a sex-specific manner

Framing uncertain scenarios to emphasize potential positive or negative elements influences decision making and behavior. The current experiment investigated sex differences in framing effects on risk-taking propensity in a modified version of the Balloon Analogue Risk Task (BART). Male and female undergraduates completed questionnaires on sensation seeking, impulsiveness, and risk and benefit perception prior to viewing one of three framing conditions for the BART: (1) positively-framed instructions emphasizing the ability to earn money if balloons were inflated to large size; (2) negatively framed instructions emphasizing the possibility that money could be lost if balloons were inflated to bursting; and (3) completely framed instructions noting both possible outcomes. Results revealed correlations between BART performance and impulsiveness for both sexes. Compared to positive and complete framing, negatively framed instructions decreased balloon inflation time in women but not men, indicating sex differences in response to treatments designed to alter risk-taking behavior.     

Construct Validity of the Balloon Analogue Risk Task (BART): Relationship with MDMA Use by Inner-City Drug Users in Residential Treatment

In a program of research assessing the validity of the balloon analogue risk task (BART; C. W. Lejuez et al., 2002) as a measure of risk taking, the BART was administered to a sample of inner-city drug users in residential treatment (n = 76). Construct validity of the BART was evaluated by measuring risk-taking behavior and 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA) use while controlling for self-reported impulsivity, sensation seeking, polysubstance use, and demographic variables. Supporting the construct validity of the BART, while controlling for interrelated variables in the context of logistic regression analyses, (BART) risk-taking propensity accounted for significant incremental variance in differentiating MDMA users from non-users. BART scores, polysubstance use, and younger age were most associated with MDMA use, and together these variables were associated with 91% classification accuracy in predicting MDMA use.     

Construct validity of the Balloon Analog Risk Task (BART): associations with psychopathy and impulsivity

To continue research assessing the validity of the Balloon Analog Risk Task (BART) as a measure of risk taking, the BART was administered to a nonforensic sample of individuals with varying levels of psychopathic characteristics. Construct validity of the BART was evaluated by measuring risk-taking behavior in relation to self-reported psychopathy, anxiety, psychophysiological data, and demographic variables. Supporting the construct validity of the BART, while controlling for variance accounted for by interrelated variables in the context of hierarchical regression analyses, higher self-reported psychopathy was significantly predictive of increased risk taking on the BART. Findings also revealed interesting gender differences in self-reported psychopathy and a trend for men to engage in riskier behavior. Limitations and research directions are presented.     

Individual Differences in Risky Decision Making: A Meta‐analysis of Sensation Seeking and Impulsivity with the Balloon Analogue Risk Task

To represent the state‐of‐the‐art in an effort to understand the relation between personality and risk taking, we selected a popular decision task with characteristics that parallel risk taking in the real world and two personality traits commonly believed to influence risk taking. A meta‐analysis is presented based on 22 studies of the Balloon Analogue Risk Task from which correlations with sensation seeking and impulsivity assessments could be obtained. Results calculated on a total of 2120 participants showed that effect size for the relation of sensation seeking with risk taking was in the small–moderate range ( = .14), whereas the effect size for impulsivity was just around the small effect size threshold ( = .10). Although we considered participants' demographics as moderators, we found only significantly larger effect sizes for the older adolescents and young adults compared with other ages. The findings of the present review supported the view that inconsistencies in personality–risk research were mostly due to random fluctuations of specific effect sizes, rather than to lack of theoretical ties or to measurement unreliability. It is also concluded that studies aimed at relating individual differences in personality to performance in experimental decision tasks need an appropriate sample size to achieve the power to produce significant results. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Avoidance in Adolescence: The Balloon Risk Avoidance Task (BRAT)

Journal of Psychopathology and Behavioral Assessment - A large body of work documents the utility of behavioral risk tasks for making inferences about adolescent risk-taking proclivities and...     

Ownership Status and the Representation of Assets of Uncertain Value: The Balloon Endowment Risk Task (BERT)

Owners tend to overvalue possessions relative to non‐owners: a phenomenon known as the endowment effect. In three experiments, using markets for goods of uncertain value, we investigated whether this can be partly attributed to misperceiving an asset's profitability or to uncertainty about a good's utility. To test our hypotheses, we devised the Balloon Endowment Risk Task, in which participants can sell or buy their right to participate in the Balloon Analogue Risk Task. Once purchased/retained, a virtual balloon is pumped to accrue money, which is lost if the balloon bursts. Participants first learn about the risky asset (balloon) by observing others playing the Balloon Analogue Risk Task before they enter the market. In Experiment 1, we replicated the endowment effect; yet, owners and non‐owners predicted pumping the same number of times and subsequently did so when given that opportunity. In Experiments 2 and 3, the level of uncertainty about the balloon's profitability was manipulated by modifying the number of bursts that participants viewed in the initial learning stage. When more diagnostic information was provided, making the average burst point easier to estimate and reducing value uncertainty and increasing confidence in valuation, the endowment effect diminished although mean estimates of the average burst point did not differ between owners and non‐owners. Thus, endowment effects were partly attributable to value uncertainty but could not be explained by owners and non‐owners having divergent perceptions of the asset's payoff distribution. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Risk assessment behaviors associated with corticosterone trigger the defense reaction to social isolation in rats: role of the anterior cingulate cortex

The extent to which the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis is activated by short-term and long-term consequences of stress is still open to investigation. This study aimed to determine (i) the correlation between plasma corticosterone and exploratory behavior exhibited by rats subjected to the elevated plus maze (EPM) following different periods of social isolation, (ii) the effects of the corticosterone synthesis blocker, metyrapone, on the behavioral consequences of isolation, and (iii) whether corticosterone produces its effects through an action on the anterior cingulate cortex, area 1 (Cg1). Rats were subjected to 30-min, 2-h, 24-h, or 7-day isolation periods before EPM exposure and plasma corticosterone assessments. Isolation for longer periods of time produced greater anxiogenic-like effects on the EPM. However, stretched attend posture (SAP) and plasma corticosterone concentrations were increased significantly after 30?min of isolation. Among all of the behavioral categories measured in the EPM, only SAP positively correlated with plasma corticosterone. Metyrapone injected prior to the 24?h isolation period reversed the anxiogenic effects of isolation. Moreover, corticosterone injected into the Cg1 produced a selective increase in SAP. These findings indicate that risk assessment behavior induced by the action of corticosterone on Cg1 neurons initiates a cascade of defensive responses during exposure to stressors.     

Intra-female aggression in the mouse (Mus musculus domesticus) is linked to the estrous cycle regularity but not to ovulation

Intraspecific communication between mice takes place mainly via urinary chemosignals or "pheromones". Pheromones can influence aggressive and reproductive behavior as well as the neuroendocrine condition of the recipient female mice via their olfactory system. In this study, reproductively cyclic mice in the estrus phase were used to test intraspecific agonistic aggressive behavior. Data were obtained also on the count of the eggs shed in the oviducts. The results showed that (i) individually housed female mice are more aggressive toward an intruder female mouse than grouped mice, (ii) mice in which the vomeronasal organ was removed show aggressive behavior intermediate between individually housed and grouped mice, and (iii) a within group analysis did not show a positive correlation between aggression and presence of shed eggs in the oviducts.     

The emotional impact of faces (but not names): Face specific changes in skin conductance responses to familiar and unfamiliar people

Skin Conductance Responses (SCRs) to familiar and unfamiliar names and faces were recorded from independent groups of subjects, using two different presentation designs: the first employing fewer familiar than unfamiliar items (Tranel, Fowles, and Damasio, 1985) and the second employing equal numbers of familiar and unfamiliar items. In both designs, familiar faces were responded to significantly more strongly than unfamiliar faces, whereas for names there was no difference in responses to familiar and unfamiliar stimuli. Faces produced significantly larger overall SCRs than names in the unequal familiar/unfamiliar ratio design, but this effect was not observed in the equal ratio design. The results are discussed with particular reference to those previously published by Tranel et al. (1985) and in relation to work both on covert recognition in prosopagnosia and on one of the delusional misidentification syndromes known as the Capgras delusion. This study was carried out with generous support from the EJLB Foundation (Canada) and the Wellcome Trust.     

The emotional impact of faces (but not names): Face specific changes in skin conductance responses to familiar and unfamiliar people

Skin Conductance Responses (SCRs) to familiar and unfamiliar names and faces were recorded from independent groups of subjects, using two different presentation designs: the first employing fewer familiar than unfamiliar items (Tranel, Fowles, and Damasio, 1985) and the second employing equal numbers of familiar and unfamiliar items. In both designs, familiar faces were responded to significantly more strongly than unfamiliar faces, whereas for names there was no difference in responses to familiar and unfamiliar stimuli. Faces produced significantly larger overall SCRs than names in the unequal familiar/unfamiliar ratio design, but this effect was not observed in the equal ratio design. The results are discussed with particular reference to those previously published by Tranel et al. (1985) and in relation to work both on covert recognition in prosopagnosia and on one of the delusional misidentification syndromes known as the Capgras delusion. This study was carried out with generous support from the EJLB Foundation (Canada) and the Wellcome Trust.     

The Influence of Positive Affect on the Decision Rule in Risk Situations: Focus on Outcome (and Especially Avoidance of Loss) Rather Than Probability

Two experiments examined the influence of positive affect on probability estimation and choice. Participants in whom positive affect had been induced, as well as no-manipulation controls, were asked to make both numerical evaluations of verbal probabilities in three-outcome gambles and actual betting decisions about similar gambles. Results from Experiment 1 showed the phenomenon labeledcautious optimism:Positive affect participants significantly overestimated the probabilities associated with phrases for winning relative to their estimates of probability of losing for the same phrases (optimism), while participants in a control condition did not; yet, in actual gambling situations, affect condition participants were much less likely to gamble than were controls when a real loss was possible (caution). Results of the betting task from Experiment 2 further indicated that affect participants used a betting-decision rule that was different from that of controls: They bet less than controls in gambles where potential losses were large, even though probability of loss was small, and they bet more than controls in gambles where the amount of the potential loss was small, even though the probability of loss was moderate or large. These findings suggest that positive affect can promote an overt shift from a decision rule focusing primarily on probabilities to one focusing on utilities or outcome values, especially for losses. Taken together, the results are compatible with an interpretation of the influence of positive affect in terms of an elaboration of positive cognitive material, and purposive behavior in decisions, rather than in terms of mere response bias.     

Social motivation and the use of distal,but not local,featural cues are related to ranging behavior in free-range chickens (Gallus gallus domesticus)

Animal Cognition - Animals can navigate an environment relying on different sources of information, such as geometrical or featural cues. The favoring of one type of information over another...     

Individual Differences in Attitudes Relevant to Juror Decision Making: Development and Validation of the Pretrial Juror Attitude Questionnaire (PJAQ)1

This study involves scale development using theoretically derived items from previous measures and a lay consensual approach for generating new items. Confirmatory factor analysis was used to validate the emergent constructs assessing individual differences in attitudes of prospective jurors. Using case summaries, the Pretrial Juror Attitude Questionnaire (PJAQ) demonstrates superior predictive validity over commonly employed measures of pretrial bias. The PJAQ confirms the importance of theoretically derived constructs assessed by other scales and introduces new constructs to the jury decision‐making literature. The attitudes assessed by the PJAQ are conviction proneness, system confidence, cynicism toward the defense, racial bias, social justice, and innate criminality. Implications for assessing such attitudes and for better understanding the decision‐making process of jurors are discussed.