The Rat Gambling Task219 was designed to mimic the structure of the Iowa Gambling task. In the rat version, animals are given a limited amount of time to select from four options. As with the decks in the Iowa Gambling Task, there are two choices with larger potential rewards (more sugar pellets) but also the chance of a large penalty (a long time-out period). The other two choices deliver smaller rewards, but also have shorter time-out penalties. Since time to perform the task is limited, optimal performance involves selection of the smaller reward but shorter time penalty options.
