Balloon Analogue Risk Task (BART) - Virtual Reality

The BART models real-world risk behavior through the concept balancing the potential for reward versus loss. In the task, the participant is presented with a balloon and offered the chance to earn money by pumping the balloon.

Each click causes the balloon to incrementally inflate and money to be added to a counter up until some threshold, at which point the balloon is over-inflated and explodes. Each pump confers greater risk, but also a greater potential reward. If the participant chooses to cash-out prior to the balloon exploding, they collect the money earned for that trial, but if the balloon explodes, earnings for that trial are lost.