Flanker Task

Attention Duration: ~8 minutes
Flanker Task screenshot

System Requirements

🖥️
Screen Size:
Minimum: 800×600
Recommended: 1280×800
⌨️
Keyboard required

Description

An implementation of the Eriksen Flanker Task, a test of selective attention and response inhibition where participants identify a central target while ignoring flanking distractors.

About This Test

Participants respond to the direction of a central arrow while ignoring surrounding flanker arrows. Flankers can be congruent (same direction as target), incongruent (opposite direction), or neutral. The task includes practice trials followed by test blocks with an 800ms response deadline.

Test Details

Test ID:
flanker
Main File:
flanker.pbl
Parameters:
9 configurable parameters
Languages:
English Spanish Lithuanian

🚀 Try Without Registration

Run this test immediately without creating an account. Data stays in your browser.

Scientific Background

Original Task References:

These references describe the original task that this PEBL implementation is based on.

  • Eriksen, C. W., & Schultz, D. W. (1979). Information processing in visual search: A continuous flow conception and experimental results. Perception & Psychophysics, 25(4), 249-263.
  • Stins, J. F., Polderman, T. J. C., Boomsma, D. I., & de Geus, E. J. C. (2007). Conditional accuracy in response interference tasks: Evidence from the Eriksen flanker task and the spatial conflict task. Advances in Cognitive Psychology, 3(3), 389-396.

Data Output

Creates multiple data files in the data folder: (1) flanker-<subnum>.csv with columns: subnum, block (block number), trial (trial number), practice (1=practice, 0=test), targdir (target direction: -1=left, 1=right), flankercoherence (flanker-target relationship: 1=congruent/match, -1=incongruent/mismatch, 0=neutral, NA=dash trials), flankerdir (flanker direction: -1=left, 1=right, 0=neutral, NA=dash), time0 (absolute trial time in ms), resp (participant response; [<timeout>] indicates no response within 800ms deadline), corr (trial accuracy: 1=correct, 0=incorrect), rt (response time in ms); (2) flanker-summary-<subnum>.txt containing text summary report; (3) flanker-pooled.csv with all trials pooled across subjects; (4) flanker-log.csv with session log; (5) flanker-all.csv containing summary statistics including mean accuracy, mean RT, conflict effect (incongruent RT - congruent RT), and congruence-specific RT and accuracy measures.

About This Test

An implementation of the Eriksen Flanker Task, a test of selective attention and response inhibition where participants identify a central target while ignoring flanking distractors.

Category: Attention
Estimated Duration: 8 minutes
Available Translations: 3 languages

Documentation Sources:
Test description file, Test implementation, Parameter schema

Documentation Status: Complete