PEBL Hub — IRB Fact Sheet — 2026-08-23
Balloon Analog Risk Task
Category:Risk & Decision Making
Duration:~10 minutes
Parameters:13 configurable parameters available
Version:1.0
Input:Mouse
Description
A measure of risk-taking behavior where participants inflate virtual balloons to earn points, balancing reward against the risk of the balloon popping.
Key Parameters
| allowAutoPump | Does the balloon continue to pump while holding the button down? 1=yes,0=no (default: 0) |
| startballoonsize | (default: 10) |
| moneyperpump | (default: 0.05) |
| life1 | Mean breaking point for the first balloon type (default: 8) |
| life2 | Mean breaking point for the second balloon type (default: 16) |
| life3 | Mean breaking point for the third balloon type (default: 128) |
| use1 | Whether to use balloon type 1 (orange) (default: 1) |
| use2 | Whether to use balloon type 1 (Gold/yellow) (default: 1) |
| use3 | Whether to use balloon type 1 (blue) (default: 1) |
| trialsperset | Number of balloons in each set. (default: 10) |
| phase1 | Whether to use the Phase-1 style trials (mixed) (default: 1) |
| phase2 | Whether to use the Phase-2 style trials (blocked) (default: 1) |
| minpumps | Whether to add one 'free' pump to each balloon, so it never pops on the first pump. (default: 0) |
Example Data Output (5 sample rows)
| subnum | trial | type | phase | life | pumps | total | collected | burst | time |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| test3 | 1 | 1 | Phase1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 745 |
| test3 | 2 | 2 | Phase1 | 7 | 5 | 0.25 | 0.25 | 0 | 1236 |
| test3 | 3 | 2 | Phase1 | 12 | 2 | 0.35 | 0.1 | 0 | 995 |
| test3 | 4 | 2 | Phase1 | 5 | 5 | 0.35 | 0 | 1 | 957 |
| test3 | 5 | 1 | Phase1 | 8 | 2 | 0.45 | 0.1 | 0 | 1106 |
References
Lejuez, C. W., Read, J. P., Kahler, C. W., Richards, J. B., Ramsey, S. E., Stuart, G. L., Strong, D. R., & Brown, R. A. (2002). Evaluation of a behavioral measure of risk-taking: The Balloon Analogue Risk Task (BART). Journal of Experimental Psychology: Applied, 8, 75-84.