Decision Making
Fishing Risk Task
Also called: angling risk task, ART, sequential fishing task
Measure when people stop to keep points, comparing visible and hidden ponds and two rules for returning caught fish.
5-8 minUntimed
Free to start: 10 free participants per account, then $0.99 per participant for academic research, or any yearly plan. Try it here first, with no account.
- Papers, 2021 to 2025
- 2
- Evidence grade
- D
- Registered clinical studies
- 0
What it measures
Measures when people stop taking a risk to keep points. Participants fish or collect in four kinds of pond: visible or hidden contents, with caught fish kept or returned. Scores summarize casts before voluntary collection in each condition.
Constructs
- Sequential risk taking
- Decisions from experience
- Sensitivity to available information
Research uses
- Research on risk and reward
- Comparing decisions with visible and hidden probabilities
How the paradigm works
The angling risk paradigm separates the information available about a risk from the way the risk changes after each successful choice. Participants repeatedly fish or collect. Four conditions cross visible or hidden pond contents with keeping or returning caught fish. This version uses smaller ponds, points and original drawings, and summarizes voluntary stopping separately in each condition.
Scores
- Casts Before Collectioncount
- Mean casts on voluntarily collected rounds; losses and forced caps are excluded.
- Higher values mean later voluntary stopping
- Visible Pond, Fish Keptcount
- Mean voluntary-stop casts when fish are visible and kept out.
- Compare conditions within the study
- Hidden Pond, Fish Keptcount
- Mean voluntary-stop casts when contents are hidden and caught fish stay out.
- Compare conditions within the study
- Visible Pond, Fish Returnedcount
- Mean voluntary-stop casts when fish are visible and returned.
- Compare conditions within the study
- Hidden Pond, Fish Returnedcount
- Mean voluntary-stop casts when contents are hidden and caught fish return.
- Compare conditions within the study
- Hidden Minus Visible Castscount
- Mean of the two hidden-condition means minus the mean of the two visible-condition means. Null unless all four means exist.
- Positive values mean later stopping with hidden contents
- Mean Casts, All Roundscount
- Mean casts across all rounds, including the final cast of a loss.
- Descriptive
- Rounds Lost%
- Proportion of rounds ended by the X fish.
- Descriptive
- Points Collectedpoints
- Points actually collected in test rounds.
- Descriptive
- Voluntarily Collected Roundscount
- Rounds ended by the collect button.
- Descriptive
- Rounds at the Cast Limitcount
- Rounds automatically collected at 64 casts.
- Excluded from voluntary-stop means
- Collections Without a Castcount
- Rounds voluntarily ended without fishing.
- Quality context
- Median Decision Timems
- Median time between an available action and the chosen action, excluding responses under 100 ms.
- Descriptive
- Anticipationscount
- Decisions made in less than 100 ms.
- Quality check
- Rounds Completedcount
- Completed test rounds in the selected run.
- Descriptive
- Planned Roundscount
- Four times the rounds-per-condition setting.
- Descriptive
Use and evidence
2 papers from 2021 to 2025 name this task in their title or abstract. That ranks it 484 of 495 test families in our census. See the counts for every test.
Show the numbers
| Year | Papers |
|---|---|
| 2025 | 0 |
| 2024 | 0 |
| 2023 | 0 |
| 2022 | 2 |
| 2021 | 0 |
| 2020 | 1 |
| 2019 | 0 |
| 2018 | 0 |
| 2017 | 0 |
| 2016 | 0 |
| 2015 | 0 |
| 2014 | 1 |
| 2013 | 2 |
| 2012 | 0 |
| 2011 | 0 |
| 2010 | 0 |
| 2009 | 0 |
| 2008 | 0 |
| 2007 | 0 |
| 2006 | 0 |
| 2005 | 0 |
| 2004 | 0 |
| 2003 | 0 |
| 2002 | 0 |
| 2001 | 0 |
| 2000 | 0 |
Use grade E
Fewer than 30 papers from 2021 to 2025.
Evidence grade D
Little published measurement evidence found.
- Papers on test-retest reliability
- 0
- Papers on reliability or validity
- 1
- Registered clinical studies using it as an outcome
- 0
Note on the counts: Original shorter four-condition adaptation; no published norms..
How the grades work
Use: A is 1,000 or more papers from 2021 to 2025, B 300 to 999, C 100 to 299, D 30 to 99 and E fewer than 30. Evidence: A means at least 25 papers report its test-retest reliability and at least 25 registered clinical studies use it as an outcome; B, at least 8 test-retest papers, and either 5 registered clinical studies or 150 reliability or validity papers; C, at least 2 test-retest papers, 30 reliability or validity papers or 3 registered clinical studies; D, little published measurement evidence found. The counts measure use. They include every paper that names the task in its title or abstract. Grades describe the published research on this task, not ConductCognition's version of it.
Source: ConductCognition test census 0.22.0, counted 31 October 2026 from OpenAlex and ClinicalTrials.gov.
Task design
The trial sequence as the test runs in ConductCognition.
- Conditions
- 4 pond conditions: visible or hidden contents, crossed with keeping or returning caught fish. Each condition is one block; their order is seeded.
- Rounds
- 10 rounds per condition as standard, 40 in total; configurable from 5 to 30 per condition. One practice round comes first.
- Ponds
- 16 fish when keeping catches and 9 when returning them. One fish marked X ends the round and loses only its uncollected points. Circle-marked fish add points. The hidden condition conceals the count.
- Points
- 5 per successful cast as standard, configurable from 1 to 100. Collect saves the current round. Your study decides what points are worth.
- Controls
- Fish and Collect buttons, without a response deadline. Successful casts have a 250 ms pause. Feedback waits for Next round. Returning rounds automatically collect after 64 successful casts.
- Scores
- Mean casts before voluntary collection overall and per condition, an equally weighted hidden-minus-visible contrast, losses and collected points. Forced caps are excluded from voluntary-stop means.
This shorter adaptation uses original drawings and smaller ponds than the published method. Scores describe choices within the task; they do not classify real-world behavior.
Quality checks
Each session is marked valid, needs review or invalid, with the reason, before you see its scores.
Scored rows: the selected run's completed fishing rounds. There is no correct stopping point, so accuracy and repeated choices are not judged. Fewer than half the planned rounds invalidates; other incomplete runs and zero casts on at least 90% of rounds are flagged. A majority of decisions under 200 ms invalidates.
Why these rules
There is no correct option to compare with chance, so accuracy is not judged against chance. Voluntary collections reveal a stopping point; losses and forced caps do not. A consistent stopping point is allowed. Empty collections carry little information about sequential choices. An answer under 200 ms is faster than a simple visual reaction, so it cannot reflect the item. Following response-time effort screening for untimed tests (Wise and Kong 2005), the session is invalid only when at least half the answers are that fast.
No percentile. Scores and quality flags only.
Running this test
Settings you can change
| Setting | Standard | Allowed |
|---|---|---|
| Rounds per pond condition | 10 | 5 to 30 |
| Points per fish | 5 | 1 to 100 |
Yearly plans can change settings within these limits. Free and pay-as-you-go studies use the standard settings.
Need a setting this test does not have?
Devices and languages
- Untimed test: runs on desktops, laptops, tablets and phones. Participant devices
- Languages: English, Spanish, French, German, Italian, Portuguese (Brazil), Chinese (Simplified) and Japanese.
- Available on: Every plan, including the free plan.
- No percentile. Scores and quality flags only. How norms work
- Recruiting online? See the setup guides for Prolific, Sona Systems, CloudResearch Connect and Qualtrics.
Cite and describe
Participants completed the Fishing Risk Task in a web browser (ConductCognition task version 1.0.0, scoring version 1.0.0; Pleskac, 2008), with the standard settings (rounds per pond condition: 10; points per fish: 5). The main score was casts before collection (mean casts on voluntarily collected rounds; losses and forced caps are excluded).
ConductCognition versions: task version 1.0.0, scoring version 1.0.0. Every export records the versions each session used, for a methods section.
- Pleskac, T. J. (2008). Decision making and learning while taking sequential risks. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 34(1), 167-185. https://doi.org/10.1037/0278-7393.34.1.167Visible and hidden information crossed with sampling with and without replacement.
Source papers
- No normative data for this version.Paradigm source, N/A
Questions
How long does the Fishing Risk Task take?
About 5 to 8 minutes, as listed in the test library.
What device does a participant need?
Untimed test: runs on desktops, laptops, tablets and phones. The browser must be Chrome, Edge, Firefox or Safari.
What scores does it produce?
Casts Before Collection, Visible Pond, Fish Kept, Hidden Pond, Fish Kept, Visible Pond, Fish Returned, Hidden Pond, Fish Returned, Hidden Minus Visible Casts, Mean Casts, All Rounds, Rounds Lost, Points Collected, Voluntarily Collected Rounds, Rounds at the Cast Limit, Collections Without a Cast, Median Decision Time, Anticipations, Rounds Completed and Planned Rounds. Each session is also marked valid, needs review or invalid, with the reason.
How widely is the Fishing Risk Task used in research?
2 papers from 2021 to 2025 name it in their title or abstract. That ranks it 484 of 495 test families in the ConductCognition test census (use grade E). Source: ConductCognition test census 0.22.0, counted 31 October 2026 from OpenAlex and ClinicalTrials.gov.
How much reliability evidence does the Fishing Risk Task have?
In the published research, 0 papers report its test-retest reliability and 0 registered clinical studies use it as an outcome (evidence grade D in the ConductCognition test census).
Does it report a percentile?
No. Scores and quality flags only.
Which settings can a researcher change?
Rounds per pond condition (5 to 30) and points per fish (1 to 100). Settings can be changed on yearly plans; free and pay-as-you-go studies use the standard settings.
Which languages can participants use?
Participants can take this test in English, Spanish, French, German, Italian, Portuguese (Brazil), Chinese (Simplified) and Japanese. English is on every plan, and the other languages come with yearly plans. Have a native speaker read the machine-translated text before launch.
Is this a clinical test?
No. ConductCognition is for research use only. It runs, scores and exports the test; clinical interpretation is outside the platform.
Every test: the full test list.
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