All tasks alphabetically

All 106 tasks in one table, with the paradigm family each is filed under. The task index presents the same tasks grouped by family.

Task

Family

Short definition

Processes

Affective Picture Viewing Task

Emotion elicitation and regulation tasks

Passive or instructed viewing of emotionally valenced images (IAPS, GAPED, NAPS, OASIS) while physio…

6

Affective Priming Task

Emotion elicitation and regulation tasks

Target evaluation (good/bad) preceded by a briefly presented affective prime; response facilitation…

5

Anti-Saccade Task

Response inhibition and stopping tasks

Participants must suppress a prepotent saccade toward a peripheral cue and generate a voluntary sacc…

6

Artificial Grammar Learning Task

Conditioning, reinforcement and implicit learning tasks

Exposure to letter strings generated by a finite-state grammar followed by a grammaticality judgment…

4

Attention Network Task

Attentional cueing and orienting tasks

Identify the direction of a central arrow flanked by congruent or incongruent arrows, preceded by va…

6

Auditory Masking Task

Perceptual judgment and psychophysics tasks

Detect, discriminate, or identify a target sound in the presence of a masking sound; threshold shift…

4

Autobiographical Memory Task

Recall and recognition memory tests

Participants retrieve specific personal memories in response to cue words or structured prompts; spe…

4

Balloon Analog Risk Task

Reward, risk and value-based choice tasks

Sequential pumping of a virtual balloon for monetary reward with stochastic popping; average pumps p…

5

Biological Motion Perception Task

Perceptual judgment and psychophysics tasks

Judgment of human action or identity from sparse point-light displays attached to major joints; inde…

5

Body Ownership Illusion Task

Metacognition, agency and interoception tasks

Synchronous multisensory stimulation of a participant’s hidden body part and a visible fake or virtu…

3

Cambridge Face Memory Task

Recall and recognition memory tests

Learn target faces across viewpoints, then identify them among distractors under increasingly diffic…

5

Causal Learning Task

Conditioning, reinforcement and implicit learning tasks

Participants observe cue-outcome pairings across trials and judge the causal strength of the relatio…

4

Change Detection Task

Short-term and working memory tasks

Brief sample array followed after a blank delay by a probe array; participant reports whether any it…

4

Contextual Cueing Task

Visual search and tracking tasks

Visual search in which some distractor configurations repeat across blocks; faster search on repeate…

4

Continuous Performance Task

Oddball, vigilance and continuous performance tasks

Extended stream of stimuli in which a rare target requires a response; omission and commission error…

5

Corsi Block-Tapping Task

Short-term and working memory tasks

Experimenter taps a sequence on spatially arranged blocks; participant reproduces the sequence forwa…

4

Delay Discounting Task

Reward, risk and value-based choice tasks

Repeated choices between smaller-sooner and larger-later rewards at varying delays; indifference poi…

5

Delayed Match-to-Sample Task

Short-term and working memory tasks

Sample stimulus followed by a delay and then a probe or choice array; response indicates whether the…

4

Dictator Game Task

Social cognition and social choice tasks

One-shot allocation task in which a proposer unilaterally divides an endowment between self and a pa…

4

Digit Span Task

Short-term and working memory tasks

Auditory or visual digit sequences reproduced in forward or backward order; longest correctly reprod…

5

Digit Symbol Substitution Task

Motor performance and speeded response tasks

Timed paper-and-pencil or computerized task: substitute digits for symbols (or vice versa) using a v…

5

Directed Forgetting Task

Memory control and prospective memory tasks

Study-phase cues instruct participants to remember or forget specific items or lists; later memory t…

5

Dot-Probe Task

Attentional cueing and orienting tasks

A pair of cues (often threat/neutral) is followed by a probe at one cue location; RT difference by c…

5

Effort-Based Decision-Making Task

Reward, risk and value-based choice tasks

Participants choose between a low-effort/low-reward option and a high-effort/high-reward option on e…

5

Emotion Regulation Task

Emotion elicitation and regulation tasks

View affective images under instructions to reappraise or passively view; self-reported affect, phys…

5

Emotional Stroop Task

Conflict and interference tasks

Color-naming of emotionally valenced words; RT slowing on threat-related words indexes attentional b…

5

Eriksen Flanker Task

Conflict and interference tasks

A central target flanked by congruent or incongruent distractors; RT and error differences index sel…

5

Face Processing Task

Perceptual judgment and psychophysics tasks

Blocked or event-related presentation of faces vs. objects (or scrambled faces) to localize face-sel…

3

Facial Emotion Recognition Task

Emotion elicitation and regulation tasks

Identification of an emotion category from a face image; accuracy and RT per emotion index emotion d…

4

False Belief Task

Social cognition and social choice tasks

Wimmer & Perner–style narrative in which a protagonist holds a belief the participant knows to be fa…

4

Feeling-of-Knowing Task

Metacognition, agency and interoception tasks

After failing to recall a studied item, participants rate the likelihood they could recognize the an…

4

Finger Tapping Task

Motor performance and speeded response tasks

Repetitive single-finger or sequence tapping at fastest or paced rates; taps-per-interval and tap-ti…

4

Fixate Task

Pseudo tasks: rest, fixation and self-report blocks

Participant holds gaze on a fixation target for a block with nothing else to process or do; used as…

0

Free Recall Task

Recall and recognition memory tests

Study of a list of items followed by unaided recall in any order; serial-position curves dissociate…

6

Go/No-Go Task

Response inhibition and stopping tasks

Responses required to frequent “go” stimuli must be withheld on rare “no-go” stimuli; commission err…

5

Heartbeat Detection Task

Metacognition, agency and interoception tasks

Participants count or discriminate their own heartbeats without external feedback; the correspondenc…

3

Imitation-Inhibition Task

Conflict and interference tasks

Execute an instructed finger movement while observing a congruent or incongruent action performed by…

3

Implicit Association Task

Conflict and interference tasks

Speeded categorization of stimuli belonging to two target concepts and two evaluative attributes usi…

6

Instrumental Conditioning Task

Conditioning, reinforcement and implicit learning tasks

Actions are reinforced by contingent outcomes under defined schedules; response rate and choice prob…

5

Intentional Binding Task

Metacognition, agency and interoception tasks

Participants judge the perceived time of a voluntary action and/or its sensory effect using a Libet…

3

Iowa Gambling Task

Reward, risk and value-based choice tasks

Repeated choices among four decks with hidden reward and loss distributions; preference shift toward…

6

Judgment-of-Learning Task

Metacognition, agency and interoception tasks

After studying each item, participants predict the likelihood they will recall it on a later test; c…

4

Lexical Decision Task

Language comprehension and production tasks

Speeded word/nonword judgment; RT and accuracy index lexical access and are sensitive to frequency,…

5

Mental Rotation Task

Spatial cognition and navigation tasks

Judgment of whether two rotated objects are identical or mirror images; RT scales linearly with angu…

4

Mirror Tracing Task

Motor performance and speeded response tasks

Tracing of a figure viewed only in a mirror; error and completion time across trials index visuomoto…

5

Mismatch Negativity Task

Oddball, vigilance and continuous performance tasks

Passive auditory oddball in which rare deviant sounds elicit a negative ERP around 150–250 ms, index…

4

Mnemonic Similarity Task

Recall and recognition memory tests

Incidental encoding of images followed by a test with old, new, and lure items; discrimination of lu…

6

Monetary Incentive Delay Task

Reward, risk and value-based choice tasks

Cue predicts potential monetary gain or loss; speeded target response determines outcome. Striatal a…

4

Motor Sequence Learning Task

Motor performance and speeded response tasks

Repeated execution of a fixed finger sequence; within- and across-session speed and accuracy changes…

5

Multi-Armed Bandit Task

Conditioning, reinforcement and implicit learning tasks

Repeated choice among options with unknown or changing reward distributions; choice sequences dissoc…

5

Multiple Object Tracking Task

Visual search and tracking tasks

Participants track a subset of identical moving objects among distractors for several seconds; track…

5

N-Back Task

Short-term and working memory tasks

Continuous stream in which each item must be compared to the one n items back; accuracy and RT index…

5

Navon Task

Conflict and interference tasks

Hierarchical letters in which large letters are composed of small ones; RT differences between globa…

4

Oddball Task

Oddball, vigilance and continuous performance tasks

Sequence of standards with rare deviants or targets; deviants elicit a large positive ERP around 300…

5

Old/New Recognition Memory Task

Recall and recognition memory tests

Studied items mixed with new lures at test; hit and false-alarm rates yield d’ and can be decomposed…

6

Operation Span Task

Short-term and working memory tasks

Alternating arithmetic verification and word/letter memory items; complex-span score indexes working…

5

Paired Associates Learning Task

Recall and recognition memory tests

Study of cue-target pairs followed by cued recall; proportion recalled indexes associative encoding…

5

Pavlovian Fear Conditioning Task

Conditioning, reinforcement and implicit learning tasks

A neutral CS is paired with an aversive US (shock, loud sound); conditioned responses (SCR, startle,…

5

Phonological Awareness Task

Language comprehension and production tasks

Rhyme judgment, phoneme deletion, or phoneme blending tasks index sensitivity to the sound structure…

4

Picture Naming Task

Language comprehension and production tasks

Naming of pictured objects; RT and errors index lexical retrieval and are sensitive to name agreemen…

6

Posner Spatial Cueing Task

Attentional cueing and orienting tasks

A central or peripheral cue indicates the likely target location; RT differences between valid, neut…

5

Prisoner’s Dilemma Task

Social cognition and social choice tasks

Two-player one-shot or iterated game with cooperate/defect choices and asymmetric payoffs; choice pa…

6

Probabilistic Classification Learning Task

Conditioning, reinforcement and implicit learning tasks

Multi-cue probabilistic prediction of a binary outcome with trial-by-trial feedback; learning curves…

5

Probabilistic Selection Task

Conditioning, reinforcement and implicit learning tasks

Learn to choose between stimulus pairs through probabilistic feedback, then select among novel recom…

5

Prospective Memory Task

Memory control and prospective memory tasks

Participants perform an ongoing task while remembering to execute a deferred intention when a target…

4

Psychological Refractory Period Task

Motor performance and speeded response tasks

Two tasks presented with a short SOA; RT for the second task lengthens as SOA shortens, indexing a c…

4

Psychomotor Vigilance Task

Oddball, vigilance and continuous performance tasks

Simple reaction to visual or auditory stimuli appearing at random intervals over 5–10 minutes; mean…

4

Random Dot Kinematogram Task

Perceptual judgment and psychophysics tasks

A field of moving dots in which a variable fraction move coherently; direction judgments and RT unde…

5

Rapid Serial Visual Presentation Task

Oddball, vigilance and continuous performance tasks

A rapid stream of visual items is presented at a single location (typically 6-20 items/second); part…

7

Raven’s Progressive Matrices Task

Rule use, planning and reasoning tasks

Matrix completion items requiring induction of a rule from a 3x3 array of figures; items correct is…

5

Reading the Mind in the Eyes Task

Social cognition and social choice tasks

Choice of the best-matching mental-state word for a photograph of the eye region; accuracy indexes c…

4

Remember/Know Task

Recall and recognition memory tests

Classify recognition hits as ‘remember’ (vivid recollection) or ‘know’ (familiarity without context)…

5

Remote Associates Task

Rule use, planning and reasoning tasks

Three cue words linked to a single fourth word; solution rate and solution time index semantic searc…

4

Rest Task

Pseudo tasks: rest, fixation and self-report blocks

Participant stays awake, still and unoccupied for a block of several minutes while spontaneous activ…

0

Reversal Learning Task

Conditioning, reinforcement and implicit learning tasks

After initial stimulus-reward learning, the contingencies switch; perseveration and reversal speed i…

4

Rey Auditory Verbal Learning Task

Recall and recognition memory tests

Repeated presentation of a 15-word list with immediate free recall over five trials, an interference…

7

Self-Paced Reading Task

Language comprehension and production tasks

Participants press a key to reveal each word or phrase of a sentence/passage; reading time per regio…

4

Self-Referential Encoding Task

Memory control and prospective memory tasks

Participants judge whether trait adjectives describe themselves vs. another person or a semantic pro…

4

Semantic Priming Task

Language comprehension and production tasks

Lexical or semantic decision on targets preceded by semantically related or unrelated primes; RT fac…

4

Sentence Comprehension Task

Language comprehension and production tasks

Reading or listening to locally ambiguous sentences; reading-time disruptions and offline comprehens…

6

Serial Reaction Time Task

Conditioning, reinforcement and implicit learning tasks

Sequential key-press responses to cued locations; RT speedup on repeating vs random sequences indexe…

5

Simon Task

Conflict and interference tasks

Non-spatial feature (e.g. color) dictates a left/right response while task-irrelevant stimulus locat…

5

Social Incentive Delay Task

Reward, risk and value-based choice tasks

MID variant in which cues predict potential social (smiling/frowning face) rather than monetary outc…

4

Source Memory Task

Recall and recognition memory tests

After studying items presented in distinct contexts (speaker, location, modality, time), participant…

5

Sternberg Item Recognition Task

Short-term and working memory tasks

Short memory set followed by a probe; yes/no judgment of set membership. RT typically scales linearl…

5

Stop-Signal Task

Response inhibition and stopping tasks

Choice RT task in which an occasional stop signal requires response cancellation; stop-signal reacti…

5

Stroop Color-Word Task

Conflict and interference tasks

Naming the ink color of color words while ignoring word meaning; RT and error costs on incongruent t…

6

Sustained Attention to Response Task

Response inhibition and stopping tasks

Speeded responses to frequent non-targets with withholding on rare targets; commission errors and RT…

5

Take Questionnaire Task

Pseudo tasks: rest, fixation and self-report blocks

Participant reads or hears a series of questionnaire items and records a response to each; the instr…

0

Task Switching Task

Rule use, planning and reasoning tasks

Alternation between two or more simple tasks on cue; switch-cost RT and errors index task-set reconf…

4

Think/No-Think Task

Memory control and prospective memory tasks

Cue words are presented with instructions to either retrieve or suppress their learned associate; la…

5

Tower of London Task

Rule use, planning and reasoning tasks

Rearrange colored beads on pegs to match a goal state in the minimum number of moves; pre-execution…

5

Trail Making Task

Rule use, planning and reasoning tasks

Paper-and-pencil sequencing: connect numbered circles (Part A) or alternate numbers and letters (Par…

5

Trust Game Task

Social cognition and social choice tasks

Two-stage exchange in which an investor transfers a fraction of an endowment (multiplied on receipt)…

5

Two-Stage Decision Task

Conditioning, reinforcement and implicit learning tasks

Sequential two-choice task with probabilistic transitions to second-stage states and drifting reward…

5

Ultimatum Game Task

Social cognition and social choice tasks

Proposer offers a division of an endowment; responder accepts or rejects. Rejection of unfair offers…

4

Useful Field of View Task

Visual search and tracking tasks

Brief central identification combined with peripheral localization under increasing distractor and d…

5

Verb Generation Task

Language comprehension and production tasks

Produce a verb associated with each presented noun; indexes lexical-semantic retrieval and inhibitio…

5

Verbal Fluency Task

Language comprehension and production tasks

Generate as many words as possible within a time limit matching a phonemic (letter) or semantic (cat…

4

Virtual Morris Water Maze Task

Spatial cognition and navigation tasks

Navigate a virtual circular arena to find a hidden platform using distal spatial cues; latency and s…

5

Virtual Radial Arm Maze Task

Spatial cognition and navigation tasks

Virtual multi-arm maze in which participants retrieve rewards from each arm once; working-memory and…

4

Visual Masking Task

Perceptual judgment and psychophysics tasks

A brief target is rendered invisible or reduced in visibility by a preceding or following mask; vari…

4

Visual Search Task

Visual search and tracking tasks

Detection of a target in a display of distractors; search slopes across set size dissociate feature…

5

Wason Selection Task

Rule use, planning and reasoning tasks

Four cards with letters and numbers under a conditional rule; participants choose cards to turn over…

3

Weapons Identification Task

Conflict and interference tasks

Speeded categorization of tools vs weapons primed by faces of varying race; congruence effects index…

6

Wisconsin Card Sorting Task

Rule use, planning and reasoning tasks

Sort cards by a hidden rule (color, form, or number) using only correct/incorrect feedback; after ru…

5