Oddball, vigilance and continuous performance tasks

A long stream of stimuli contains rare targets or deviants; detection, false alarms, response variability or the evoked response to the rare event are the measures.

This family contains 5 tasks and cross-lists 1 more.

Continuous Performance

Extended stream of stimuli in which a rare target requires a response; omission and commission errors index sustained attention and response control. Engages 5 processesSustained attentionAlertingResponse inhibitionSelective attentionMind wandering. 4 aliasesCPTCPT-IIAX-CPT variant also separate entryContinuous Performance, 8 variationsX-CPT (Simple)AX-CPT (Context Processing)Identical Pairs CPT (IP-CPT)Gradual-Onset CPT (gradCPT)Auditory CPTConners’ CPT-3TOVA (Test of Variables of Attention)CPT with Emotional Distractors.

Mismatch Negativity

Passive auditory oddball in which rare deviant sounds elicit a negative ERP around 150–250 ms, indexing pre-attentive auditory change detection. Engages 4 processesAuditory perceptionAuditory tone discriminationPitch perceptionAcoustic processing. 3 aliasesMMNMismatch Negativity ParadigmMismatch Negativity, 9 variationsFrequency MMNDuration MMNIntensity MMNLocation/Spatial MMNComplex Pattern MMNMulti-Feature MMN (Optimum)Phoneme/Speech MMNVisual MMN (vMMN)Roving Standard MMN.

Oddball

Sequence of standards with rare deviants or targets; deviants elicit a large positive ERP around 300 ms (P3a/P3b), indexing attention and context updating. Engages 5 processesSelective attentionTemporal attentionAttentional captureSustained attentionWorking memory updating. 3 aliasesP300 TaskAuditory OddballVisual Oddball, 9 variationsTwo-Stimulus Auditory OddballThree-Stimulus Novelty OddballVisual OddballPassive OddballActive Counting vs. Button-Press ResponseDuration Deviance OddballCross-Modal OddballEmotional OddballRoving Paradigm.

Psychomotor Vigilance

Simple reaction to visual or auditory stimuli appearing at random intervals over 5–10 minutes; mean RT, lapses, and false starts index sustained attention. Engages 4 processesSustained attentionAlertingResponse executionMind wandering. 2 aliasesPVTPsychomotor Vigilance, 4 variationsStandard 10-Minute PVTBrief PVT (PVT-B)Palm PVT / Mobile PVTAuditory PVT.

Rapid Serial Visual Presentation

A rapid stream of visual items is presented at a single location (typically 6-20 items/second); participants detect one or more targets among distractors. Target detection accuracy, especially for a second target shortly after a first (attentional blink), indexes temporal attention allocation. Engages 7 processesTemporal attentionSelective attentionSustained attentionCategorizationAttentional awarenessPerceptual awarenessWorking memory updating. 7 aliasesRSVP TaskAttentional Blink TaskAB TaskRSVP Attentional BlinkRSVP Target DetectionRSVP Stream TaskDual-Target RSVP, 13 variationsDual-Target Attentional BlinkSingle-Target RSVPEmotion-Induced BlindnessRapid Scene CategorizationRSVP Image Triage (BCI)Triple-RSVP (Multiple Streams)Whole-Report RSVPRSVP with Task SwitchDetection vs. IdentificationThree-Target VariantCross-Modal Attentional BlinkEmotional Attentional BlinkSpatial Two-Stream RSVP, also filed under 1 other familyVisual search and tracking tasks.

Also filed here

These tasks are filed under another family and cross-listed here; the note says why.

Task	Filed under	Note
Sustained Attention to Response	Response inhibition and stopping tasks	Go/no-go structure with rare withhold targets; also a vigilance measure

Marked for review

A review mark means the assignment is a judgement call the curator has flagged for a second opinion. On the family an entry is filed under it means “not sure this is the right home”; on a cross-listing it means “not sure this belongs here at all”. The note names the alternative or the doubt. Comments go to the issue tracker.

Task	Membership	Note
Sustained Attention to Response	cross-listed	Go/no-go structure with rare withhold targets; also a vigilance measure