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. 2021 Apr 16;16(9):926–936. doi: 10.1093/scan/nsab047

Table 2.

Mean points, pumps and explosions by balloon condition, drug and task phase

Task phase
Early phase Mid-phase Late phase
Outcome Balloon Drug M SD M SD M SD
Pointsa Certain-long Placebo 55.02 18.34 66.98 23.53 73.69 27.54
Propranolol 49.38 15.07 60.83 25.37 59.95 23.53
Certain-short Placebo 16.31 8.86 24.18 11.02 26.07 11.21
Propranolol 16.14 6.57 19.57 9.81 22.14 11.63
Uncertain Placebo 37.07 13.35 35.40 13.17 39.29 11.25
Propranolol 26.69 10.26 34.10 13.61 29.02 13.21
Pumpsb Certain-long Placebo 59.60 21.94 71.44 27.49 79.13 29.93
Propranolol 55.69 23.22 64.26 28.99 66.29 29.72
Certain-short Placebo 42.31 4.96 41.82 4.34 40.73 4.86
Propranolol 40.19 7.03 40.52 7.25 39.90 7.25
Uncertain Placebo 48.53 12.02 48.53 12.03 49.89 10.34
Propranolol 50.45 15.26 49.79 13.56 51.05 16.06
Explosionsb Certain-long Placebo 0.33 0.56 0.38 0.65 0.42 0.69
Propranolol 0.41 0.73 0.24 0.43 0.52 0.77
Certain-short Placebo 3.38 1.50 2.24 1.69 1.96 1.68
Propranolol 3.07 1.40 2.69 1.81 2.38 1.96
Uncertain Placebo 1.67 1.07 1.56 1.39 1.20 1.31
Propranolol 1.38 1.08 1.83 1.53 1.31 1.28

Points represent performance on the BELT, pumps represent risk-taking and explosions represent untempered risk-taking. The total task contained 54 trials, with 18 trials (six of each balloon type) in each phase of the task.

a

In each task phase, participants could earn a maximum of 114 points from the certain-long balloons, 42 points from the certain-short balloons, and variable number of points from the uncertain balloons.

b

In each task phase, the certain-long balloon exploded on the 20th pump (with a maximum number of 114 possible safe pumps and up to six explosions), the certain-short balloons exploded on the 8th pump (with a maximum number of 42 possible safe pumps and up to six explosions) and uncertain balloons exploded on the 8th, 14th or 20th pumps (with a variable number of maximum possible safe pumps and up to six explosions). For any trial where a balloon exploded, all points on that trial were lost.