Eriksen Flanker Task¶
HED Task ID: hedtsk_eriksen_flanker
Also known as: Flanker, Flanker Task
A central target flanked by congruent or incongruent distractors; RT and error differences index selective attention and conflict resolution.
Description¶
The Eriksen Flanker Task measures selective attention and the ability to inhibit responses to irrelevant flanking stimuli. Participants view a brief display of five items arranged horizontally, with a central target flanked by two non-target items on each side. The central target requires a specific response, while flanking items may be congruent (same response), incongruent (opposite response), or neutral. Participants respond via speeded button press while ignoring flankers. The flanker compatibility effect (slowed RT and increased errors on incongruent trials) indexes the degree of response competition and the efficiency of attentional filtering.
Inclusion test¶
Procedure |
Participants identify a central target (arrow or letter) flanked by congruent, incongruent, or neutral distractors. |
Manipulation |
Flanker congruency; flanker-target distance; proportion congruent; response deadline. |
Measurement |
RT and accuracy; congruency effect (incongruent − congruent RT); delta plots (interference across RT distribution); conflict adaptation (Gratton effect). |
Variations¶
Variation |
Description |
Justification |
|---|---|---|
Arrow Flanker (Standard) |
Five horizontally arranged arrows; identify central arrow direction while ignoring flanking arrows. |
Canonical flanker: central arrow surrounded by congruent/incongruent arrows |
Letter Flanker |
Letters (e.g., ‘H’ among ‘S’ letters) rather than arrows; the original Eriksen format. |
Letter stimuli instead of arrows; different S-R mapping and stimulus class |
Color Flanker |
Respond to central stimulus color while ignoring flanking colors. |
Color response with flanking distractors; different response dimension |
Emotional Flanker |
Emotional faces or images as flankers creating affective interference. |
Emotional face flankers; retained per §5.1 (EMOT retired) |
Numerical Flanker |
Digit stimuli where flanker magnitude creates conflict with target digit processing. |
Number stimuli with magnitude response; different S-R domain |
Proportion-Congruent Flanker |
Varying ratio of congruent to incongruent trials; modulates strategic control engagement. |
Varies ratio of congruent to incongruent trials; changes conflict adaptation context per §5.2 |
Combined Flanker + Go/No-Go |
Flanker conflict combined with response inhibition demands. |
Integrated flanker-GNG design; targets response inhibition under conflict |
Cognitive processes¶
This task engages the following cognitive processes:
Key references¶
{‘authors’: ‘Eriksen, B. A., & Eriksen, C. W.’, ‘year’: 1974, ‘title’: ‘Effects of noise letters upon the identification of a target letter in a nonsearch task’, ‘venue’: ‘Perception & Psychophysics’, ‘venue_type’: ‘journal’, ‘journal’: ‘Perception & Psychophysics’, ‘volume’: ‘16’, ‘issue’: ‘1’, ‘pages’: ‘143-149’, ‘doi’: ‘10.3758/bf03203267’, ‘openalex_id’: None, ‘pmid’: None, ‘citation_string’: ‘Eriksen, B. A., & Eriksen, C. W. (1974). Effects of noise letters upon the identification of a target letter in a nonsearch task. Perception & Psychophysics, 16(2), 143-149.’, ‘url’: ‘https://doi.org/10.3758/bf03203267’, ‘source’: ‘crossref’, ‘confidence’: ‘high’, ‘verified_on’: ‘2026-04-20’}
{‘authors’: ‘Botvinick, M. M., Braver, T. S., Barch, D. M., Carter, C. S., & Cohen, J. D.’, ‘year’: 2001, ‘title’: ‘Conflict monitoring and cognitive control.’, ‘venue’: ‘Psychological Review’, ‘venue_type’: ‘journal’, ‘journal’: ‘Psychological Review’, ‘volume’: ‘108’, ‘issue’: ‘3’, ‘pages’: ‘624-652’, ‘doi’: ‘10.1037/0033-295x.108.3.624’, ‘openalex_id’: None, ‘pmid’: None, ‘citation_string’: ‘Botvinick, M. M., Braver, T. S., Barch, D. M., Carter, C. S., & Cohen, J. D. (2001). Conflict monitoring and cognitive control. Psychological Review, 108(3), 624-652.’, ‘url’: ‘https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-295x.108.3.624’, ‘source’: ‘crossref’, ‘confidence’: ‘high’, ‘verified_on’: ‘2026-04-20’}
{‘authors’: ‘Egner, T., & Hirsch, J.’, ‘year’: 2005, ‘title’: ‘Cognitive control mechanisms resolve conflict through cortical amplification of task-relevant information’, ‘venue’: ‘Nature Neuroscience’, ‘venue_type’: ‘journal’, ‘journal’: ‘Nature Neuroscience’, ‘volume’: ‘8’, ‘issue’: ‘12’, ‘pages’: ‘1784-1790’, ‘doi’: ‘10.1038/nn1594’, ‘openalex_id’: None, ‘pmid’: None, ‘citation_string’: ‘Egner, T., & Hirsch, J. (2005). Cognitive control mechanisms resolve conflict through cortical amplification of task-relevant information. Nature Neuroscience, 8(12), 1784-1790.’, ‘url’: ‘https://doi.org/10.1038/nn1594’, ‘source’: ‘crossref’, ‘confidence’: ‘high’, ‘verified_on’: ‘2026-04-20’}
Recent references¶
{‘authors’: ‘Evans, N. J., & Servant, M.’, ‘year’: 2018, ‘title’: ‘A comparison of conflict diffusion models in the flanker task through pseudo-likelihood Bayes factors’, ‘venue’: ‘Psychonomic Bulletin & Review’, ‘venue_type’: ‘preprint’, ‘journal’: None, ‘volume’: ‘25’, ‘issue’: ‘1’, ‘pages’: ‘323–330’, ‘doi’: ‘10.31234/osf.io/x53n6’, ‘openalex_id’: None, ‘pmid’: None, ‘citation_string’: ‘White, C. N., Servant, M., & Logan, G. D. (2018). Testing the validity of conflict drift-diffusion models for use in estimating cognitive processes: A parameter-recovery study. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 25(1), 323–330.’, ‘url’: ‘https://doi.org/10.31234/osf.io/x53n6’, ‘source’: ‘crossref’, ‘confidence’: ‘high’, ‘verified_on’: ‘2026-04-20’}
{‘authors’: ‘Ulrich, R., Schröter, H., Leuthold, H., & Birngruber, T.’, ‘year’: 2015, ‘title’: ‘Automatic and controlled stimulus processing in conflict tasks: Superimposed diffusion processes and delta functions’, ‘venue’: ‘Cognitive Psychology’, ‘venue_type’: ‘journal’, ‘journal’: ‘Cognitive Psychology’, ‘volume’: ‘78’, ‘issue’: None, ‘pages’: ‘148-174’, ‘doi’: ‘10.1016/j.cogpsych.2015.02.005’, ‘openalex_id’: None, ‘pmid’: None, ‘citation_string’: ‘Ulrich, R., Schröter, H., Leuthold, H., & Birngruber, D. (2015). Automatic and controlled stimulus processing in conflict tasks: Superimposed diffusion processes and delta functions. Cognitive Psychology, 78, 148–174.’, ‘url’: ‘https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cogpsych.2015.02.005’, ‘source’: ‘crossref’, ‘confidence’: ‘high’, ‘verified_on’: ‘2026-04-20’}
{‘authors’: ‘Servant, M., & Logan, G. D.’, ‘year’: 2019, ‘title’: ‘Dynamics of attentional focusing in the Eriksen flanker task’, ‘venue’: ‘Attention, Perception, & Psychophysics’, ‘venue_type’: ‘journal’, ‘journal’: ‘Attention, Perception, & Psychophysics’, ‘volume’: ‘81’, ‘issue’: ‘8’, ‘pages’: ‘2710-2721’, ‘doi’: ‘10.3758/s13414-019-01796-3’, ‘openalex_id’: None, ‘pmid’: None, ‘citation_string’: ‘Servant, M., & Logan, G. D. (2019). Dynamics of attentional focusing in the Eriksen flanker task. Attention, Perception, & Psychophysics, 81, 2710–2721.’, ‘url’: ‘https://doi.org/10.3758/s13414-019-01796-3’, ‘source’: ‘crossref’, ‘confidence’: ‘high’, ‘verified_on’: ‘2026-04-20’}
{‘authors’: ‘Donner, T. H., Siegel, M., Fries, P., & Engel, A. K.’, ‘year’: 2009, ‘title’: ‘Buildup of Choice-Predictive Activity in Human Motor Cortex during Perceptual Decision Making’, ‘venue’: ‘Current Biology’, ‘venue_type’: ‘journal’, ‘journal’: ‘Current Biology’, ‘volume’: ‘19’, ‘issue’: ‘18’, ‘pages’: ‘1581-1585’, ‘doi’: ‘10.1016/j.cub.2009.07.066’, ‘openalex_id’: None, ‘pmid’: None, ‘citation_string’: ‘Donner, T. H., Siegel, M., Fries, P., & Engel, A. K. (2009). Buildup of choice-predictive activity in human motor cortex during perceptual decision making. Current Biology, 19(18), 1581–1585.’, ‘url’: ‘https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2009.07.066’, ‘source’: ‘crossref’, ‘confidence’: ‘high’, ‘verified_on’: ‘2026-04-20’}