How Easy or Hard works
Pymetrics’ 2017 US patent names the EEfRT as the task behind the game it lists as Easy or Hard. In its version you choose, again and again, between an easy task and a hard one. The easy task means pressing the space bar fewer times, and completing it pays the same reward every time. The hard task means pressing it more times, and completing it gives you a chance of a much higher reward.
Pymetrics does not publish the number of rounds, the rewards or the odds used in the live game. Our practice game is called Hard or Easy; the patent’s name is Easy or Hard.
What it measures
The patent describes the EEfRT as a way to study effort-based decision making: how much effort a person will spend for a reward. In research, higher trait anhedonia predicts a lower likelihood of choosing effort for a reward, which is why the patent calls the task an effective proxy for motivation. People who pick the hard task more often are assessed as more motivated by reward, even when it takes more effort.
Pymetrics reported split-half reliability of .76 and test-retest reliability of .68 for its version. Harver lists effort among the traits its game-based assessment covers, and Pymetrics says its games have no right or wrong answers.
How our practice version works
Our Hard or Easy practice keeps the choice but changes the work and the odds. Each of 25 rounds offers Easy, worth $1 with an 80 to 95% chance of paying, or Hard, worth $5 with a 50 to 70% chance. The task you then do is a short arithmetic problem or a reaction test rather than pressing the space bar, and even the easy option is not guaranteed. Each choice shows its odds and expected value on screen, which the real game may not. The rounds, rewards and odds are all ours.