Battery guide
Attention and Impulsivity Battery guide
Four tasks of sustained attention, response inhibition and interference control, for ADHD research.
- Guide version
- 1.2.0
- Battery version
- 1.0.0
What it measures
Who it is for: ADHD research.
It measures Sustained attention, Action cancellation, Response inhibition and Interference control.
Attention: Keeping attention on a task and picking out what matters.
Response inhibition: Stopping or holding back a response.
Scores describe how a person performs on these tasks. Research use only.
Tests in order
The tests run in this order. A study started from the battery keeps the order and the settings.
1. Continuous Performance Test. Measures sustained attention by asking participants to respond to target letters and withhold responses to non-target letters across a continuous stream.
2. Stop-Signal Task. Measures action cancellation by asking participants to make speeded left/right responses and withhold the response when a stop signal appears.
3. Go/No-Go Task. Measures response inhibition by requiring participants to respond to 'go' stimuli and withhold responses to 'no-go' stimuli.
4. Eriksen Flanker Task. Measures selective attention and cognitive control by requiring participants to identify the direction of a central arrow while ignoring flanking arrows.
| Order | Test | Domain | Time |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Continuous Performance Test | Attention | 6 to 9 minutes |
| 2 | Stop-Signal Task | Response inhibition | 5 to 7 minutes |
| 3 | Go/No-Go Task | Response inhibition | 4 to 5 minutes |
| 4 | Eriksen Flanker Task | Attention | 4 to 5 minutes |
Time and devices
Allow about 26 minutes for the whole battery. The table gives each test's time.
The battery has timed tests. Participants need a desktop or laptop with a mouse or trackpad, and the timed tests run in full screen. Tablets and phones cannot run it.
On a desktop or laptop the screen must be at least 1024 by 700 pixels.
Participants need Chrome, Edge, Firefox or Safari.
| Test | Timing | Devices |
|---|---|---|
| Continuous Performance Test | Timed | Desktop or laptop |
| Stop-Signal Task | Timed | Desktop or laptop |
| Go/No-Go Task | Timed | Desktop or laptop |
| Eriksen Flanker Task | Timed | Desktop or laptop |
Languages
Runs in all eight participant languages.
How to give it
Start a study from the battery in the app. The tests, their order and their settings are already set and stay fixed. If you change, reorder or customize a test, the study becomes a custom study and no longer carries the battery.
Each test opens with its instructions. Participants see these:
Continuous Performance Test: Press the spacebar when you see the target letter X. Do not press for other letters. Stay focused throughout the full stream.
Stop-Signal Task: Respond quickly to left and right arrows. If the arrow turns red, try to stop yourself and do not press a key.
Go/No-Go Task: Press the spacebar when you see a GREEN circle (Go). Do NOT press anything when you see a RED circle (No-Go). Respond as quickly and accurately as you can.
Eriksen Flanker Task: Focus on the MIDDLE arrow and indicate its direction. Press the LEFT arrow key if the middle arrow points left, or the RIGHT arrow key if it points right. Ignore the surrounding arrows.
| Step | Before you invite participants |
|---|---|
| 1 | Decide which participant details your analysis needs, such as study group or medication taken that day, and collect them with your own forms. |
| 2 | Ask participants to use a desktop or laptop in a quiet room, in one sitting. |
| 3 | Pilot the battery yourself: the four tasks take about 26 minutes. |
| 4 | Review quality flags before comparing groups. |
How each test is scored
The server scores each test when the participant finishes it. The primary score is the one the app compares with a norm. The other scores are reported with it.
Every result records its scoring version. For this battery they are Continuous Performance Test 1.0.0, Stop-Signal Task 1.2.0, Go/No-Go Task 1.0.0 and Eriksen Flanker Task 1.0.0.
| Test | Score | What it is | Better |
|---|---|---|---|
| Continuous Performance Test | Hit Rate (proportion) | Proportion of target trials with a response. | Higher is better |
| Continuous Performance Test | False Alarm Rate (proportion) | Proportion of non-target trials with an incorrect response. | Lower is better |
| Continuous Performance Test | d-Prime (primary) | Signal-detection sensitivity combining target hits and non-target false alarms. | Higher is better |
| Continuous Performance Test | Omission Errors | Target trials where no response was recorded. | Lower is better |
| Continuous Performance Test | Commission Errors | Non-target trials where a response was recorded. | Lower is better |
| Continuous Performance Test | Mean Hit RT (ms) | Lower is better when accuracy is maintained | |
| Continuous Performance Test | RT Variability | Hit RT standard deviation divided by mean hit RT. | Lower is better |
| Continuous Performance Test | Time-on-Task Slope (ms/trial) | Linear change in hit RT across the scored block. | Informational |
| Stop-Signal Task | Stop-Signal Reaction Time (ms, primary) | Integration-method estimate of the covert stopping latency: the nth fastest go RT minus the mean stop-signal delay, with n the number of go trials times p(respond|signal). Every go trial counts, choice errors included, and a go trial with no response counts at the slowest go RT (Verbruggen et al. 2019). | Lower is better when validity flags pass |
| Stop-Signal Task | SSRT, Correct Go Trials Only (ms) | The estimate used before scoring version 1.1.0: correct go RTs only, with go omissions and choice errors left out. It runs shorter when go trials were missed. For comparing with earlier results. | Informational |
| Stop-Signal Task | Stop Success Rate (proportion) | Proportion of stop trials where the participant successfully withheld a response. | Near 0.50 is expected under a working staircase |
| Stop-Signal Task | Go Reaction Time (ms) | Mean reaction time on correct go trials. | Informational |
| Stop-Signal Task | Go Accuracy (proportion) | Proportion of go trials answered with the correct arrow key. | Higher is better |
| Stop-Signal Task | Failed-Stop RT (ms) | Mean reaction time on stop trials where the participant failed to inhibit. | Should usually be faster than go RT |
| Stop-Signal Task | Valid SSRT Flag (0/1) | Indicates whether core SSRT validity checks passed. | 1 indicates interpretable SSRT |
| Go/No-Go Task | Mean Go RT (ms) | Average reaction time on correct Go trials. Reflects processing speed for respond conditions. | Lower is better |
| Go/No-Go Task | Go Accuracy (proportion) | Proportion of Go trials with a correct response. Low values suggest inattention. | Higher is better |
| Go/No-Go Task | No-Go Accuracy (proportion) | Proportion of No-Go trials correctly withheld. Directly measures inhibitory success. | Higher is better |
| Go/No-Go Task | d-Prime (primary) | Signal detection sensitivity: Z(hit rate) - Z(false alarm rate). Separates discriminability from response bias. | Higher is better |
| Go/No-Go Task | Commission Errors | Responses on No-Go trials (false alarms). Primary index of inhibitory failure. | Lower is better |
| Go/No-Go Task | Omission Errors | Missed responses on Go trials. Indicates lapses in sustained attention. | Lower is better |
| Eriksen Flanker Task | Congruent RT (ms) | Average RT on congruent trials (all arrows same direction). | Lower is better |
| Eriksen Flanker Task | Incongruent RT (ms) | Average RT on incongruent trials (flankers oppose target). | Lower is better |
| Eriksen Flanker Task | Flanker Effect (ms, primary) | Incongruent RT minus congruent RT. Primary measure of interference cost. Higher values indicate greater susceptibility to distraction. | Lower is better |
| Eriksen Flanker Task | Congruent Accuracy (proportion) | Proportion correct on congruent trials. Expected near ceiling. | Higher is better |
| Eriksen Flanker Task | Incongruent Accuracy (proportion) | Proportion correct on incongruent trials. More sensitive to attentional deficits than congruent accuracy. | Higher is better |
| Eriksen Flanker Task | Overall Accuracy (proportion) | Proportion correct across all trial types. | Higher is better |
Session quality rules
The app checks every session when it scores it and records one of four states.
An Invalid session stays in the study's results, labelled with its reason, and does not count toward norms.
A session can carry warnings and still be valid. The results list the warnings next to the scores.
| State | What it means |
|---|---|
| Norm-ready | The session passed every check and a norm exists for it, so the app can show a percentile. |
| Raw-only | The scores are usable, but the app shows no percentile. Typical reasons are no norm for the test, changed settings, or a warning that makes a comparison unfair, such as a restart or a screen too short for the display. |
| Invalid technical | The setup broke the timing or the task. Examples are leaving full screen, a browser tab that lost focus during a timed test, and long pauses. |
| Invalid behavioral | The responses suggest the task was not done as asked. Examples are a failed attention check, repeated switching away from the task, and accuracy at or below chance on a choice task. |
Published norms used
No published norm is used for any test in this battery.
ConductCognition also builds norms from its own participants. An age band of a test uses them once it holds at least 50 valid sessions on the same device and input type, run with standard settings and scored with the current scoring version. Sessions from paying customers' studies and from clinical or patient samples do not count.
A report shows a percentile only when the app has stored one for that session. Otherwise it shows the raw scores.
Every reference group covers ages 18 and over. No reference group covers a participant under 18, so their report shows raw scores only, and their sessions do not count toward norms.
How to cite
ConductScience, Inc. Attention and Impulsivity Battery guide, version 1.2.0. ConductCognition. https://conductcognition.com/batteries/attention-impulsivity/guide
Cite the guide version you used. Name the battery version (1.0.0) and the scoring versions listed in this guide.