Sequential Investment Task (SIT)

Frey, R., Rieskamp, J., & Hertwig, R. (2015). Sell in May and go away? Learning and risk taking in nonmonotonic decision problems. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 41(1), 193-208. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0038118

	Table of Contents
	Description
	References

Description:

Purpose		This is a sequential risk-taking task similar to the BART. The task consist of selling shares over the course of virtual days. In contrast to the BART, the underlying payoff structure is non-monotonic (i.e., in the BART the payoffs as well as the probability of an explosion monotonically increase across trials). Specifically, the prices of the shares can repeatedly increase and decrease, which gives rise to a variety of different risk- (and payoff-) profiles. The SIT can be parameterized on several dimensions and can thus be used to study risk taking, exploration vs. exploitation trade-offs, learning abilities, as well as overall decision competence.
Questions		The SIT typically consists of 3 x 16 shares, each of which consisting of a maximum of 16 trials. Screenshot of the task   Distribution of the stimuli - unimodal   Distribution of the stimuli - bimodal
Sub-scales		The sequential development of the shares' prices can follow different stochastic patterns. We have implemented the SIT with a uni-modal structure (i.e., a single global maximum) as well as with a bi-modal structure (i.e., a global as well as a local maximum).
Domain		Risk Attitude: Behavioral Measures of Risk
Sample items		"You are going to sell shares in three different, color-coded stock markets. Each market has a specific selling point that, on average, yields the highest selling price. All shares in each market follow a similar price pattern due to an external event. In total, you will receive 16 shares for each of the three markets (i.e., a total of 48 shares) and you can sell each of these shares during a virtual day. Each day consists of 16 selling points that require a binary decision on whether to keep or to sell the current share. If not sold earlier, a share is automatically sold at selling point 16."

References:

Scale:
Frey, R., Rieskamp, J., & Hertwig, R. (2015). Sell in May and go away? Learning and risk taking in nonmonotonic decision problems. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 41(1), 193-208. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0038118

Uses:

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