Participants differ on their ability to avoid decks which have cards with higher immediate gains but overall long-term losses. The IGT is a card game in which participants are told to accumulate as much play money as possible by picking one card at a time from any of four decks.

Several paradigms have been developed for the assessment of risk-taking behavior in the laboratory, and the Iowa Gambling Task (IGT) is most popular. Multi-dimensional approaches are needed, ranging from behavioral processes and neural substrates underlying risk-taking behaviors to assessing risk-taking behaviors in the real world. A wide range of vulnerability factors and life processes interact to determine adolescent risk-taking behavior. Yet, not all adolescents are risk-takers and identifying individual differences in risk-taking is important for targeting those at greatest risk. For example, adolescents are more likely than adults to drive speedily and/or while intoxicated, to have casual sexual partners and/or unprotected sex, and to engage in violent and other criminal behavior. Relative to other age groups, adolescence is described as a period of increased risk-taking. Although these maturational transitions offer tremendous opportunities for youth, because the developing brain and behavioral and cognitive systems mature at different rates, this period also is marked by heightened vulnerability. Adolescence is a major transition period in life when individuals undergo significant physical, psychological and social changes to assume the roles and responsibilities of adulthood.

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