Abstract
Purpose
The Balloon Analogue Risk Task (BART) is one of the most widely used behavioral tasks in psychology and has an especially strong presence in the fields of decision research, addiction research, and neuropsychology. But despite its popularity, researchers using the BART seem largely unaware of the task’s methodological shortcomings, which sometimes leads to conclusions that are not supported by the data. This is likely a result of these shortcomings not being widely reported, as “failure” is not considered a popular publishing theme. Therefore, the present paper aims to gather and review these shortcomings, as well as potential solutions.
Take-home message
The Balloon Analogue Risk Task (BART) suffers from various methodological shortcomings. The present paper analyzes these shortcomings and offers suggestions to mitigate their effects. Finally, it calls upon researchers to critically evaluate how these shortcomings impact their studies before deciding whether and how to use BART.
The Balloon Analogue Risk Task (BART) is one of the most widely used behavioral tasks in psychology and has an especially strong presence in the fields of decision research, addiction research, and neuropsychology. But despite its popularity, researchers using the BART seem largely unaware of the task’s methodological shortcomings, which sometimes leads to conclusions that are not supported by the data. This is likely a result of these shortcomings not being widely reported, as “failure” is not considered a popular publishing theme. Therefore, the present paper aims to gather and review these shortcomings, as well as potential solutions.
Take-home message
The Balloon Analogue Risk Task (BART) suffers from various methodological shortcomings. The present paper analyzes these shortcomings and offers suggestions to mitigate their effects. Finally, it calls upon researchers to critically evaluate how these shortcomings impact their studies before deciding whether and how to use BART.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 43-51 |
| Number of pages | 9 |
| Journal | Journal of Trial and Error |
| Volume | 1 |
| Issue number | 1 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 14 Oct 2020 |
| Externally published | Yes |