Evaluating the Iowa Gambling Task as a direct assessment of impulsivity with low-income children

This study examined performance on the Iowa Gambling Task (IGT; Bechara, Damasio, Damasio, & Anderson, 1994) as a measure of low-income school-aged children’s affective decision-making and considered its utility as a direct indicator of impulsivity. One hundred and ninety-three 8–11 year olds performed a computerized version of the Iowa Gambling Task, a validated measure of decision-making. Multi-level modeling was used to examine children’s performance over the course of the task, with age, gender, and teachers’ ratings of child impulsivity (BIS-11; Patton, Stanford, & Barratt, 1995) used to predict children’s Iowa Gambling performance. Higher impulsivity scores predicted a decrease in slope of Iowa Gambling performance, indicating students rated higher on impulsivity chose more disadvantageously across the task blocks. Results support evidence of the validity of the Iowa Gambling Task as a measure of impulsivity in low-income minority children.     

Decision-making and feedback sensitivity: A comparison between older and younger adults

This study investigated decision-making and feedback sensitivity in healthy older adults with a new task: the Pictures Decision Task. The study was conducted on 27 older (aged 64–88) and 26 younger adults (aged 25–57) matched for years of education. Results showed that older adults did not show the Jumping to Conclusions bias and that older adults had difficulty learning from feedback only when the context was ambiguous and not when they were given aids or interpretative information that decreased ambiguity. The Pictures Decision Task, with respect to the Iowa Gambling Task and the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test, allowed us to assess decision-making and feedback sensitivity under highly ambiguous conditions and therefore to add new insight into the reasoning process of older people.     

Adolescents' performance on the Iowa Gambling Task: implications for the development of decision making and ventromedial prefrontal cortex

Healthy adolescents (79 girls, 66 boys), ages 9-17, completed the Iowa Gambling Task (IGT; A. Bechara, A. R. Damasio, H. Damasio, & S. W. Anderson, 1994) as well as working memory (digit span) and behavioral inhibition (go/no-go) tasks. Cross-sectional age-related changes were seen on all 3 tasks. Gender differences were seen in IGT deck preference and attentional variables (i.e., go/no-go hit rate and forward digit span). After age, gender, and general intellectual abilities were controlled for, IGT performance was not predicted by working memory or behavioral inhibition scores. Findings suggest that the ventromedial prefrontal cortex or its connections are functionally maturing during adolescence in a manner that can be distinguished from maturation of other prefrontal regions. Development of these functions may continue into young adulthood.     

Sex differences in early childhood, adolescence, and adulthood on cognitive tasks that rely on orbital prefrontal cortex

Through the use of several tests of cognition we have documented sex differences in young children, adolescents, and adults on tasks that rely on the integrity of the orbital prefrontal cortex. In children under three years of age, males performed with significantly fewer errors than did females on tests of object reversals. No significant sex differences were found in older children, despite the use of a more challenging object reversal task. Sex differences were also found in adolescents and adults on the Iowa Gambling Task. On this decision-making task, in contrast to males, females appear to be responding to different elements of the task. Discussion of the implications for these findings is presented.     

风险取向类型与爱荷华赌博任务成绩的影响

神经科学领域的研究者们设计了测量情感决策的经典爱荷华赌博任务并提出了体细胞标记假说来解释其研究结果,但迄今为止这一假说还没有得到一致认可。许多研究提出了可能影响爱荷华赌博任务成绩的其他因素。本研究试图在前人研究的基础上采用实验法探讨风险取向类型这一人格因素是否影响正常个体的爱荷华赌博任务成绩。实验结果显示,不同风险取向类型的个体在爱荷华赌博任务中的成绩和表现截然不同。典型风险趋向型个体在爱荷华赌博任务中的表现类似于某些神经系统患者,倾向于更多地选择不利纸牌,其任务成绩显著差于典型风险回避型个体。这一研究结果表明：风险取向类型是影响正常个体爱荷华赌博任务成绩的重要因素之一。     

Direct versus indirect emotional consequences on the Iowa Gambling Task

The Iowa Gambling Task has been widely used in the assessment of neurological patients with ventro-mesial frontal lesions. The Iowa Group has claimed that the Gambling Task is too complex for participants to follow using cognition alone, so that participants must rely on emotion-based learning systems (somatic markers). The present study investigates whether similar tasks can be performed without direct somatic markers. In a 'Firefighter' task closely matched to the classic Gambling Task, participants evaluate the performance of others--so that they experience reward and punishment indirectly. In contrast to the gradual improvement in performance seen on the classic Iowa Gambling Task, participants on the Firefighter Task showed no learning effect, mirroring the performance of patients with ventro-mesial frontal lesions, and suggesting that the task is very difficult to perform without direct somatic marker information. The use of this task as empirical measure of 'empathy' are discussed.     

Emotion-based learning on a simplified card game: the Iowa and Bangor Gambling Tasks

The Iowa Gambling Task (IGT) has been widely used in the assessment of neurological patients with frontal lesions. Emphasis has been placed on the complexity of the task (i.e., four decks of varying contingency pattern) with the suggestion that the participant must use emotion-based learning to deal with a complex decision-making process. The present study used a single deck card game (the Bangor Gambling Task, BGT), matched in many respects with the Iowa Gambling Task, in which the contingencies varied over time (gradually becoming worse for the participant) rather than across deck (as in the IGT). Forty participants performed both tasks. Performance on the tasks showed many similarities, with participants showing a comparable pattern of incremental learning on both tasks, reaching an analogous final level of performance. More importantly, there was a high correlation (r(2) = .93) in performance between the two tasks, the most salient feature of which was that virtually every participant who fell below categorisation of impaired IGT performance, also did very poorly on the BGT. These findings bear on the question of whether arguments about the 'complexity' of the Iowa Gambling Task necessarily explain why it appears to require emotion-based learning. The Bangor Gambling Task might also be a useful tool for clinical neuropsychologists, in the assessment of patients with executive dysfunction-given that the task is easier and quicker to administer than the Iowa Gambling Task, but appears to share the same performance features.     

Secondary psychopathy,but not primary psychopathy,is associated with risky decision-making in noninstitutionalized young adults

Although risky decision-making has been posited to contribute to the maladaptive behavior of individuals with psychopathic tendencies, the performance of psychopathic groups on a common task of risky decision-making, the Iowa Gambling Task (IGT; Bechara, Damasio, Damasio, & Anderson, 1994), has been equivocal. Different aspects of psychopathy (personality traits, antisocial deviance) and/or moderating variables may help to explain these inconsistent findings. In a sample of college students (N = 129, age 18–27), we examined the relationship between primary and secondary psychopathic features and IGT performance. A measure of impulsivity was included to investigate its potential as a moderator. In a joint model including main effects and interactions between primary psychopathy, secondary psychopathy and impulsivity, only secondary psychopathy was significantly related to risky IGT performance, and this effect was not moderated by the other variables. This finding supports the growing literature suggesting that secondary psychopathy is a better predictor of decision-making problems than the primary psychopathic personality traits of lack of empathy and remorselessness.     

Development of hot and cool executive function during the transition to adolescence

This study examined the development of executive function (EF) in a typically developing sample from middle childhood to adolescence using a range of tasks varying in affective significance. A total of 102 participants between 8 and 15 years of age completed the Iowa Gambling Task, the Color Word Stroop, a Delay Discounting task, and a Digit Span task. Age-related improvements were found on all tasks, but improvements on relatively cool tasks (Color Word Stroop and Backward Digit Span) occurred earlier in this age range, whereas improvements on relatively hot tasks (Iowa Gambling Task and Delay Discounting) were more gradual and occurred later. Exploratory factor analysis indicated that performance on all tasks could be accounted for by a single-factor model. Together, these findings indicate that although similar abilities may underlie both hot and cool EF, hot EF develops relatively slowly, which may have implications for the risky behavior often observed during adolescence. Future work should include additional measures to characterize more intensively the development of both hot and cool EF during the transition to adolescence.     

The role of strategies in deciding advantageously in ambiguous and risky situations

In decision situations of everyday life, the potential positive or negative consequences of a decision are often specified and the associated probabilities are known or they are principally calculable ("decisions under risk"). On the basis of correlations reported in patient studies, it has been recently proposed that decisions under risk involve strategic components, i.e. calculation of the risk, as well as emotional processes, i.e. processing feedback from previous decisions. However, the potential impact of calculative strategies on decision-making under risk has not been investigated systematically, so far. In the current study, we examined 42 healthy subjects (21 females) with the Game of Dice Task measuring decisions under risk, and a questionnaire assessing strategy application in items comparable to the choices in the Game of Dice Task. In addition, the subjects performed the Iowa Gambling Task, examining decision-making under ambiguity, and a neuropsychological test battery focusing on executive functions. Results indicate that deciding advantageously in a decision-making task with explicit and stable rules is linked to applying calculative strategies. In contrast, individuals who decide intuitively prefer risky or disadvantageous choices in the Game of Dice Task. Applying calculative strategies was correlated with executive functions but not with performance on the Iowa Gambling Task. The results support the view that calculative processes and strategies may improve decision-making under explicit risk conditions.     

Impulsive decision-making: learning to gamble wisely?

A decade ago, Bechara et al. [Bechara, A., Damasio, A. R., Damasio, H., & Anderson, S. W. (1994). Insensitivity to future consequences following damage to human prefrontal cortex. Cognition, 50, 7-15] published a paper in Cognition, introducing a Gambling Task which was designed to mimic everyday decision-making. Since then, the task has been computerized, its decision-making components have been scrutinized, and it has been employed in various patient groups, such as pathological gamblers, substance abusers, and so forth. Time and again it has been shown that while normal controls perform well on the task, it is the various target populations under scrutiny who exhibit poor performance. Yet, as we show in this paper, a total of 46% of normal individuals exhibited poor performance on the task, indicating a lack of learning. We argue that while so much importance has been placed on contrasting patients with controls, perhaps the real emphasis should lie in distinguishing among different individual profiles of performance on the task, irrespective of clinical classification. Our basic recommendation is to look at the individual data, pool when you can, and only then to contrast groups.     

Sex differences moderate decision making behaviour in high impulsive sensation seekers

We tested whether individuals with high levels of impulsive sensation seeking learn to choose advantageously in a specific decision-making context. One hundred twenty-eight participants (73 female) completed a neuropsychological task, the variant version of the Iowa Gambling Task (vIGT; Bechara, Tranel, & Damasio, 2000), in which individuals must select cards from decks that offer high initial losses if they are to eventually make a profit. The selection from decks of cards that led to the highest profit as the task progressed was higher in high, compared to low, impulsive sensation seekers. However, learning to choose advantageously was moderated by sex of participant. Specifically, compared to females, male high impulsive sensation seekers learned more quickly to make consistent selections from the advantageous decks despite the large immediate losses. Overall, the data support the hypothesis that insensitivity to loss due to impulsive sensation seeking can lead to financial gain.     

IGT-Open: An open-source,computerized version of the Iowa Gambling Task

The Iowa Gambling Task (IGT) is commonly used to understand the processes involved in decision-making. Though the task was originally run without a computer, using a computerized version of the task has become typical. These computerized versions of the IGT are useful, because they can make the task more standardized across studies and allow for the task to be used in environments where a physical version of the task may be difficult or impossible to use (e.g., while collecting brain imaging data). Though these computerized versions of the IGT have been useful for experimentation, having multiple software implementations of the task could present reliability issues. We present an open-source software version of the Iowa Gambling Task (called IGT-Open) that allows for millisecond visual presentation accuracy and is freely available to be used and modified. This software has been used to collect data from human subjects and also has been used to run model-based simulations with computational process models developed to run in the ACT-R architecture.     

Some decks are better than others: the effect of reinforcer type and task instructions on learning in the Iowa Gambling Task

The Iowa Gambling Task (Bechara, Damasio, Damasio, & Anderson, 1994) has become widely used as a laboratory test of "real-life" decision-making. However, aspects of its administration that have been varied by researchers may differentially affect performance and the conclusions researchers can draw. Some researchers have used facsimile money reinforcers while others have used real money reinforcers. More importantly, the instructions participants receive have also been varied. While no differences have been reported in performance dependent on reinforcer type, no previous comparison of participants' instructions has been conducted. This is despite one set of instructions giving participants a clear hint about the nature of the task. Additionally, in previous research one set of instructions have not been used exclusively with one reinforcer type making any differential or cumulative effects of these factors difficult to interpret. The present study compared the effects of instruction and reinforcer type on IGT performance. When participants received instructions without a hint performance was affected by reinforcer type. This was not the case when the instructions included a hint. In a second IGT session performance was improved in participants who had received the hint instructions compared with those who had not.     

Age-related changes in decision making: comparing informed and noninformed situations

Advantageous decision making progressively develops into early adulthood, most specifically in complex and motivationally salient decision situations in which direct feedback on gains and losses is provided (Figner & Weber, 2011). However, the factors that underlie this developmental improvement in decision making are still not well understood. The current study therefore investigates 2 potential factors, long-term memory and working memory, by assigning a large developmental sample (7-29 years of age) to a condition with either high or low demands on long-term and working memory. The first condition featured an age-adapted version of the Iowa Gambling Task (IGT; Bechara, Damasio, Damasio, & Anderson, 1994; i.e., a noninformed situation), whereas the second condition provided an external store where explicit information on gains, losses, and probabilities per choice option was presented (i.e., an informed situation). Consistent with previous developmental IGT studies, children up to age 12 did not learn to prefer advantageous options in the noninformed condition. In contrast, all age groups learned to prefer the advantageous options in the informed conditions, although a slight developmental increase in advantageous decision making remained. These results indicate that lowering dependence on long-term and working memory improves children's advantageous decision making. The results additionally suggest that other factors, like inhibitory control processes, may play an additional role in the development of advantageous decision making.     

Artificial time constraints on the Iowa Gambling Task: the effects on behavioural performance and subjective experience

In the last decade, the Iowa Gambling Task (IGT) has become a widely employed neuropsychological research instrument for the investigation of executive function. The task has been employed in a wide range of formats, from 'manual' procedures to more recently introduced computerised versions. Computer-based formats often require that responses on the task should be artificially delayed by a number of seconds between trials to collect skin-conductance data. Participants, however, may become frustrated when they want to select from a particular deck in the time-limited versions--so that an unintended emotional experience of frustration might well disrupt a task presumed to be reliant on emotion-based learning. We investigated the effect of the various types of Iowa Gambling Task format on performance, using three types of task: the classic manual administration, with no time limitations; a computerised administration with a 6-s enforced delay; and a control computerised version which had no time constraints. We also evaluated the subjective experience of participants on each task. There were no significant differences in performance, between formats, in behavioural terms. Subjective experience measures on the task also showed consistent effects across all three formats-with substantial, and rapidly developing, awareness of which decks were 'good' and 'bad.'     

Age differences in overlapping-task performance: evidence for efficient parallel processing in older adults

Two psychological refractory period (PRP) experiments were conducted to examine overlapping processing in younger and older adults. A shape discrimination task (triangle or rectangle) for Task 1 (T1) and a lexical-decision task (word or nonword) for Task 2 (T2) were used. PRP effects, response time for T2 increasing as stimulus onset synchrony (SOA) decreased, were obtained for both age groups. The effect of word frequency on T2 was smaller at the short SOA than at the long SOA, reflecting slack effects, which were larger for older than younger adults in both experiments. These results suggest that older adults can perform lexical access of T2 in parallel with the processing of T1 at least as efficiently as younger adults.     

越老越风险规避吗？——年龄对冲动性预测决策行为的调节效应

年老化伴随着风险承担倾向的改变,而决策行为受冲动性的影响是否受到年龄的调节尚不清楚。研究采用两种不同类型的决策任务以及Barratt冲动性量表,考察老年人风险承担在自我报告和决策行为上的改变。结果显示老年人在剑桥博弈任务中更加风险寻求而在模拟充气球任务中更加风险规避。同时冲动性可以显著预测模拟充气球的行为,且该预测受到年龄的调节。研究结果提示,老年人并不是单一的更加风险规避或者风险寻求,而是与任务特异性相关。同时,冲动性可以较好的预测年轻人的决策行为,而对老年人的决策行为没有预测作用。     

Developmental changes of win-stay and loss-shift strategies in decision making

This study aims to clarify the developmental changes in real-life decision making when strategy is adjusted using both positive and negative feedback, that is, whether strategic adjustment evolves with age. A total of 84 participants divided into three age groups (children, adolescents, and adults) performed the standard version of the Iowa Gambling Task (IGT). Children and adolescents showed a strong bias in favor of disadvantageous choices whereas adults learned to decide advantageously during the course of the task. Interestingly, the results clearly demonstrate that children did not switch differently following gains and losses whereas adolescents and adults switched more often after a loss than after a gain, corresponding to the “loss-shift” and the “win-stay” strategies, respectively. The results also revealed that adults switched less often after losses compared to children and adolescents and, thus, used the loss-stay strategy more often than the 2 youngest groups. These new findings suggest that successful completion of the IGT by adults requires fine feedback monitoring and more frequent use of the win-stay and loss-stay strategic adjustments.     

Mind-wandering in younger and older adults: converging evidence from the Sustained Attention to Response Task and reading for comprehension

One mechanism that has been hypothesized to contribute to older adults' changes in cognitive performance is goal neglect or impairment in maintaining task set across time. Mind-wandering and task-unrelated thought may underlie these potential age-related changes. The present study investigated age-related changes in mind-wandering in three different versions of the Sustained Attention to Response Task (SART), along with self-reported mind-wandering during a reading for comprehension task. In the SART, both younger and older adults produced similar levels of faster reaction times before No-Go errors of commission, whereas, older adults produced disproportionate post-error slowing. Subjective self-reports of mind-wandering recorded during the SART and the reading task indicated that older adults were less likely to report mind-wandering than younger adults. Discussion focuses on cognitive and motivational mechanisms that may account for older adults' relatively low levels of reported mind-wandering.