The BART is a computerized task in which participants have chances to ‘earn money’ by pressing a button and inflating a simulated balloon. Each balloon has a random point of explosion that, if reached, causes a loss of money from a temporary bank. After each pump (key press) that does not cause explosion, participants may choose to transfer their money to a permanent bank. With each turn, participants must weigh the option of pumping the balloon and potentially gaining more money, against the potential risk of losing all money for each balloon if they cause it to explode (Lejuez, Aklin, Zvolensky et al., 2003). This decision making task that involves making multiple choices in a context of increasing risk (Lejuez, Aklin, Jones et al., 2003) is variably used to assess impulsivity (Mitchell, Schoel, & Stevens, 2008) and reward processing skills. The task has been found to correlate with drug use in adolescents (Aklin, Lejuez, Zvolensky, Kahler, & Gwadz, 2005; Lejuez, Aklin, Zvolensky, & Pedulla, 2003; Lejuez et al., 2002) and adults (Lejuez, Aklin, Jones et al., 2003). For the BART the dependent variable used in analysis was the average number of pumps on unexploded balloons (adjusted average pumps).
