Visual Search Task

Attention Duration: ~15 minutes

Description

A two-phase visual search paradigm where participants locate target characters among distractors in arrays of varying sizes, with targets defined by character identity and/or color.

Measures: Visual attention, visual search efficiency, target detection accuracy, spatial memory for target locations, and the effects of set size and target presence on search performance.

Attention Perception Visuospatial Processing Speed

Ages: 8+ · Populations: adults, children, research, clinical

About This Test

Participants view the target character, then search for it in an array of letters. When they locate the target or determine it's absent, they click the mouse. The letters are then replaced by circles, and participants click on the circle at the target's location or click 'NONE' if absent. The task manipulates search set size (10/20/30 items), number of targets present (0/1/5), target characters (O/X), and target colors (white/green).

Migrated to PEBL 2.3 with Layout integration (layout-only mode) on January 16, 2026
Part of the PEBL Cognitive Decathlon - a standardized battery of 10 cognitive tasks
Uses two-phase mouse response: (1) click when search complete, (2) click on target location or NONE
Includes 8 language translations: English, Swedish, German, Spanish, French, Italian, Dutch, Portuguese
Layout integration provides header/footer zones but does not use standard response system (incompatible with spatial click responses)
Practice trials (10 trials: 5 target-absent, 5 target-present) precede experimental trials
Break offered every 40 trials
Default configuration: 5 repetitions × 2 targets (O/X) × 2 colors (white/green) × 3 set sizes (10/20/30) × 3 presence conditions (0/1/5) = 180 trials

Test Details

Test ID:

vsearch

Main File:

vsearch.pbl

Parameters:

9 configurable parameters

8 configurable parameters including search box dimensions, target/foil characters, search array sizes (list), number of targets conditions (list), target colors (list), foil color, and number of repetitions per condition

Languages:

German English Spanish French Italian Dutch Portuguese SE

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Scientific Background

PEBL-Specific References:

These studies used the PEBL version of this task.

Mueller, S. T. (2010). A partial implementation of the BICA cognitive decathlon using the Psychology Experiment Building Language (PEBL). International Journal of Machine Consciousness, 2(02), 273-288.
Mueller, S. T. (2011). The PEBL Visual Search Task. Computer software retrieved from http://pebl.sf.net.

Validation status: Not-validated

Known Issues

ShowCursor() and SetMouseCursorPosition() have limited browser support - cursor may not hide or reset in all browsers
18px radius click targets may be small for touch devices - consider larger targets for tablets/phones

Related Tests

conjunctivesearch featureintegration

Data Output

Creates two data files: (1) vsearch-<subnum>.csv with trial-by-trial data including search times, selection times, and accuracy; (2) summary-<subnum>.txt with condition-level means grouped by target character, color, presence, and set size.

Example Data

example-data.csv Primary

Trial-by-trial data with search and selection times

sub	trial	time	numtargs	size	targchar	targcol	stim	resp	corr	rt1	rt2
example	1	58778	0	20	O	white	GCUDQCDUQGDGCQUQCUGD	0	1	2268	945
example	2	62813	5	10	X	green	XXXXXDQUGC	1	1	718	870
example	3	65209	1	10	O	green	OQGDUCUDCG	1	1	690	1019
example	4	67727	1	20	X	white	XUDGQCUCDQGDUCQGDQCU	1	1	633	666
example	5	69851	5	10	O	white	OOOOOQGCDU	3	1	1118	1039
example	6	72818	5	30	O	green	OOOOOGCUDQGCDUQDCUGQDGCUQDUCQG	2	1	753	976
example	7	75407	5	30	O	white	OOOOOGUCDQDCGUQUQGDCGDUQCUCQGD	5	1	1013	1025
example	8	78359	0	10	O	green	GQDCUCDQUG	0	1	541	1455
example	9	81164	5	20	X	green	XXXXXDCUQGQDCUGCUDQG	5	1	625	1300

View full file (37 rows) →

example-data-summary.txt Summary

Condition-level summary statistics showing mean RT1 (search time) and accuracy for each combination of target character (O/X), target color (white/green), number present (0/1/5), and set size (10/20/30)

----------------------------------------------
Target   color    X   present  size   Mean(RT)   Mean(acc)
----------------------------------------------
O  green   1294  0  30  1294  1
O  green   1827  5  10  1827  1
O  green   455  0  20  455  1
O  green   531  1  20  531  1
O  green   538  1  30  538  1
O  green   541  0  10  541  1
O  green   682  5  20  682  1
O  green   690  1  10  690  1
O  green   753  5  30  753  1
O  white   1013  5  30  1013  1
O  white   1118  5  10  1118  1
O  white   1375  1  20  1375  1
O  white   1821  1  30  1821  1
O  white   2121  0  10  2121  1
O  white   2268  0  20  2268  1
O  white   4190  0  30  4190  1
O  white   786  5  20  786  1
O  white   926  1  10  926  1
X  green   1090  1  10  1090  1
X  green   463  5  30  463  1
X  green   477  1  30  477  1
X  green   547  0  30  547  1
X  green   586  1  20  586  1
X  green   610  0  10  610  1
X  green   625  5  20  625  1
X  green   662  0  20  662  1
X  green   718  5  10  718  1
X  white   1088  1  30  1088  1
X  white   1171  0  10  1171  1
X  white   1301  0  20  1301  1
X  white   1947  0  30  1947  1
X  white   597  1  10  597  1
X  white   600  5  20  600  1
X  white   633  1  20  633  1
X  white   759  5  10  759  1
X  white   868  5  30  868  1
----------------------------------------------

Sample data showing typical output format. Actual values will vary by participant.

About This Test

A two-phase visual search paradigm where participants locate target characters among distractors in arrays of varying sizes, with targets defined by character identity and/or color.

Category: Attention
Estimated Duration: 15 minutes
Available Translations: 8 languages

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

Documentation Status: Complete