Attentional cueing and orienting tasks

A cue precedes a target and predicts its location or identity with some validity; the benefit of valid over invalid cues is the measure.

This family contains 3 tasks.

Attention Network

Identify the direction of a central arrow flanked by congruent or incongruent arrows, preceded by various cue types; RT differences across cue and flanker conditions index three independent attention networks (alerting, orienting, executive). Engages 6 processesAlertingOrientingExecutive attentionSelective attentionInterference controlConflict monitoring. 3 aliasesAttention Network TestANTClinical Screening ANT, 6 variationsStandard ANT (Fan et al., 2002)ANT-I (Callejas et al.)ANT-R (Revised)Lateralized ANT (LANT)Child ANTANT with Emotional Stimuli, also filed under 1 other familyConflict and interference tasks.

Dot-Probe

A pair of cues (often threat/neutral) is followed by a probe at one cue location; RT difference by cue type indexes attentional bias. Engages 5 processesSelective attentionSpatial attentionEmotion recognitionAttentional captureOrienting. 2 aliasesVisual Probe TaskAttentional Probe, 6 variationsStandard Face Dot-ProbeWord Dot-ProbePictorial Dot-ProbeDetection vs. Classification ProbeSubliminal/Masked Dot-ProbePositive Dot-Probe.

Posner Spatial Cueing

A central or peripheral cue indicates the likely target location; RT differences between valid, neutral, and invalid cues index covert spatial orienting. Engages 5 processesSpatial attentionOrientingAttentional captureAttention shiftingSelective attention. 2 aliasesPosner TaskSpatial Cueing Task, 11 variationsExogenous (Peripheral) CueingEndogenous (Central) CueingValid, Invalid, and Neutral Cue ConditionsInhibition of Return (IOR) ParadigmGap vs. Overlap ConditionsDouble-Cue ParadigmPredictive vs. Non-Predictive CuesFeature-Based CueingObject-Based CueingCross-Modal CueingDetection vs. Discrimination Targets.