Cognitive & Behavioral Assessment Toolbox (CBAT): An open-source platform supporting experiments in computational psychiatry.

aimsLarge-scale behavioral experiments are increasingly recognized as essential in psychiatric research based on a transdiagnostic dimensional view of mental disorders. However, advanced programming skills and substantial financial resources are usually needed to conduct such experiments, posing a barrier for new researchers. In this study, we introduce and validate an open-source platform, the Cognitive & Behavioral Assessment Toolbox (CBAT), which enables researchers to conduct large-scale behavioral experiments without the need for advanced programming expertise.

methodsTo validate the CBAT, we conducted an online behavioral experiment involving 1309 Japanese participants. Participants completed four behavioral tasks that can be deployed using the CBAT: the attention network test, the beads task, the probabilistic reward task, and the delay and probability discounting task. In addition, demographic information and self-report questionnaires, including psychiatric symptom scales, were collected.

resultsThe behavioral data successfully replicated key findings in prior studies that employed the four behavioral tasks. Specifically, we observed classic attentional network effects in the attention network test, conservative information sampling in the beads task, expected response bias in the probabilistic reward task, and robust delay and probability discounting in the delay and probability discounting task.

conclusionsThese findings demonstrate the empirical validity and broad utility of the CBAT. By facilitating behavioral experiments, the CBAT provides a flexible infrastructure to support transdiagnostic psychiatric research and investigations in other related fields. As it does not require advanced programming skills or significant financial resources, the CBAT lowers the barrier to conducting high-quality research and promotes open science in psychiatry.