Projects
Balloon Analogue Risk Task
In this task, the participant is shown a series of balloons that they can pump up to earn money. Each balloon has a pop point that is not known to the participant: guessing higher than this pop point yields no reward, while guessing equal to or under this pop point yields a reward proportional to the magnitude of the guess. Unique to this implementation, if a balloon has not reached its pop point after the participant's initial guess, they are sometimes given the option to "top off," which allows them to add a few more pumps to their initial guess.
The primary measure of this task is the average number of pumps, which represents the participant's propensity for risk.2
Psychomotor Vigilance Task
In this task, the participant watches a blank screen and waits for a stimulus to appear. The stimulus—a red number counting up in milliseconds—appears after a random interval of time. When this stimulus appears, the participant must press the spacebar as quickly as possible.
The primary measure of this task is reaction time, which reflects the participant's ability to focus and stay alert.3
Trail Making Test
In this task, the participant is shown a number of randomly scattered stimuli, specifically numbers, letters, and shapes. The participant must click them in a specific order as quickly as possible and with as few errors as possible. This specific order always involves a logical ascending or descending sequence (A, B, C...), and also involves alternating between categories (e.g., number, shape, letter, number...).
The primary measure of this task is completion time, which reflects the participant's capacity for visual search, set shifting, and working memory.4
References (Abridged)
- Doohan, M. A., Watzek, J. T., King, N., White, M. J., & Stewart, I. B. (2023). Does increased core temperature alter cognitive performance during exercise-induced heat strain? A narrative review. Journal of Applied Physiology, 135(1), 35–52. https://doi.org/10.1152/japplphysiol.00070.2023
- Pleskac, T. J., Wallsten, T. S., Wang, P., & Lejuez, C. W. (2008). Development of an automatic response mode to improve the clinical utility of sequential risk-taking tasks. Experimental and Clinical Psychopharmacology, 16(6), 555–564. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0014245
- Basner, M., Moore, T. M., Nasrini, J., Gur, R. C., & Dinges, D. F. (2020). Response speed measurements on the psychomotor vigilance test: How precise is precise enough? Sleep, 44(1), zsaa121. https://doi.org/10.1093/sleep/zsaa121
- Salthouse, T. A. (2011). What cognitive abilities are involved in trail-making performance? Intelligence, 39(4), 222–232. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.intell.2011.03.001
