PSYCOGP Term 2 AY 2023-2024

Group Exercise 2

Basiyo, Ma. Aurora R.

Cruz, Charlene Anne E.
Goco, Anthonette Crystal L.
Oberes, Christanna Leu Viktoria E.
Pineda, Janica Danielle S.

Question 1: Briefly describe the Eriksen flanker task in your own words.
The Eriksen flanker task is a psychological test that measures the person’s capacity to
ignore distractions from the environment and concentrate on the central stimulus. This tests an
individual's attention span and inhibitory function. For more specifics in cognitive psychology,
this task performance is frequently used in investigating attention and cognitive control.

Question 2: What kind of attentional mechanism does the flanker task test?
The flanker task primarily tests visual selective attention and inhibitory function, which
are fundamental components of attentional control. More precisely, it emphasizes one's ability to
direct focus toward a specific target stimulus while disregarding any interfering information from
the surrounding stimuli.

In this study, the participant is positioned in the center and exposed to a center-target
stimulus while ignoring distracting non target stimuli. After, the individual is asked to press the
left or right arrow key according to the participant's direction. The objective is to react to the
primary target while suppressing reactions to the surrounding distractions. The task engages
selective attention by necessitating the participant to discern and disregard extraneous
information while concentrating on the pertinent target.

Question 3: According to some researchers, there are certain stimulus characteristics that
automatically capture people’s attention (although this is still debated). For example, the color
red, especially when placed against a homogenous background, seems to catch our attention
(see below). This explains why many signs that demand quick behavioral responses are posted
in red color. Design a flanker task that tests whether or not this assumption is correct. Briefly
describe your version and create a diagram or illustration.

Taking into account the concept of capturing people's attention using characteristics that
make something stand out in a scene. The difference is only the subject or tool that is
outstanding compared to its background, such as a bright-colored subject in a room full of
neutral colors. In a beige or off-white background, there would be other materials with colors as
bright or pale as the background with only a few materials with dark colors such as navy blue or
black, and a large object at a farther distance, and a very bright light on the ceiling in the picture
or illustration.
 Another design is a word collage. The picture is composed of different sizes of words in
the same category. There could be different muted colors while one color stands out by having a
vibrant shade, or same-colored words with only one word standing out by having the largest font
size.

Illustration 1: Flanker Tank first design; large cup at the background and very bright lights on the ceiling.
 Illustration 2: Flanker Tank second design; word collage, one word with the largest font in contrast with the rest of the font sizes.

The Flanker Task test is designed for assessing our selective attention and inhibitory
function. We have designed a compiled flanker task with succeeding tasks of flanked letters,
colors, and arrows with lines to test the ability to suppress responses that are inappropriate in a
particular context. The order of the tasks will also be different for each participant (i.e., letters to
colors to arrows, colors to letters to arrows) to assess how long into the test a participant would
be likely to generate mistakes as well as to evaluate in which part of the test would participants
be likely to make mistakes. We hypothesize that the longer the participant is taking the test, the
more likely they are to commit errors.
Testable - site for the creation of the flanker task.
Participant’s View of the Test (not all slides are shown):
Researchers’ View of the Results For Analysis (sample test taken only). The results of the
correct and incorrect answers are in the rightmost column of the participant’s data.