The Cambridge Gambling Task was developed to assess decision-making and risk-taking behaviour outside a learning context. Relevant information is presented to the subjects 'up-front' and there is no need to learn or retrieve information over consecutive trials.
Unlike other 'Gambling' tasks, CGT dissociates risk taking from impulsivity, because in the ascending bet condition the subject who wants to make a risky bet has to wait patiently for it to appear. (Manes et al, 2002) The likely neural substrate for this task is the orbitofrontal prefrontal cortex. Traumatic Brain Injury, Alcoholism and Drug abuse are all conditions sensitive to this test. |
Administration time
Up to 30 minutes.
Task
On each trial, the subject is presented with a row of ten boxes across the top of the screen, some of which are red and some of which are blue. At the bottom of the screen are rectangles containing the words ‘Red’ and ‘Blue’. The subject must guess whether a yellow token is hidden in a red box or a blue box.
In the gambling stages, subjects start with a number of points, displayed on the screen, and can select a proportion of these points, displayed in either rising or falling order, in a second box on the screen, to gamble on their confidence in this judgement. A stake box on the screen displays the current amount of the bet. The subject must try to accumulate as many points as possible.
Test modes
Ascending first (where stakes are displayed in ascending order for two stages, then in descending order for two stages) and Descending first (where stakes are displayed in descending order for two stages, then in ascending order for two stages).
Outcome measures
The six CGT outcome measures cover risk taking, quality of decision making, deliberation time, risk adjustment, delay aversion and overall proportion bet.
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