a widely used experiment in the areas of cognition & emotion that was originally developed to assist in detecting decision-making impairment in patients with prefrontal cortex damage; a computerized experiment that is carried out in real time and resembles real-world contingencies. The task allows participants to select cards from four decks displayed on-screen. Participants are instructed that the selection of each card will result in winning or losing money. The objective is to attempt to win as much money as possible. (from http://iowagamblingtask.com/)
On each trial, participants select a card from one of four decks; two ‘bad’ decks offer a higher reward on most trials but also higher possible loss and lower overall expected value, whereas two ‘good’ decks offer a lower reward on most trials but lower possible loss and higher expected value. Participants learn the nature of the decks through trial-and- error. In some versions of the task, the probabilities are not stationary.
Definition contributed by TSchonberg about one year ago.