Battery guide
Executive Control Battery guide
Inhibition, conflict monitoring and cognitive flexibility, from four classic tasks.
- Guide version
- 1.0.0
- Battery version
- 1.0.0
What it measures
Who it is for: Inhibition and task-switching studies.
It measures Inhibition, Conflict monitoring and Cognitive flexibility.
Response inhibition: Stopping or holding back a response.
Executive function: Planning, switching rules, handling conflict and making decisions.
Attention: Keeping attention on a task and picking out what matters.
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. Go/No-Go Task. Measures response inhibition by requiring participants to respond to 'go' stimuli and withhold responses to 'no-go' stimuli.
2. Stroop Color-Word Test. Measures cognitive inhibition by asking participants to identify the ink color of color words, creating interference between reading and color naming.
3. Eriksen Flanker Task. Measures selective attention and cognitive control by requiring participants to identify the direction of a central arrow while ignoring flanking arrows.
4. Trail Making Test B. Measures executive function and cognitive flexibility by asking participants to alternate between numbers and letters (1-A-2-B-3-C...).
| Order | Test | Domain | Time |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Go/No-Go Task | Response inhibition | 4 to 5 minutes |
| 2 | Stroop Color-Word Test | Executive function | 4 to 6 minutes |
| 3 | Eriksen Flanker Task | Attention | 4 to 5 minutes |
| 4 | Trail Making Test B | Executive function | 3 to 5 minutes |
Time and devices
Allow about 18 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 |
|---|---|---|
| Go/No-Go Task | Timed | Desktop or laptop |
| Stroop Color-Word Test | Timed | Desktop or laptop |
| Eriksen Flanker Task | Timed | Desktop or laptop |
| Trail Making Test B | Timed | Desktop or laptop |
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:
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.
Stroop Color-Word Test: You will see color words displayed in different ink colors. Press the key that matches the INK COLOR, not the word itself. R=Red, G=Green, B=Blue, Y=Yellow.
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.
Trail Making Test B: Connect the circles alternating between numbers and letters (1-A-2-B-3-C...) as quickly as you can.
| Step | Before you invite participants |
|---|---|
| 1 | Confirm your participants will use a keyboard-based device. |
| 2 | Review expected runtime before sending links. |
| 3 | Export a pilot CSV to validate downstream analysis fields. |
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 Go/No-Go Task 1.0.0, Stroop Color-Word Test 1.0.1, Eriksen Flanker Task 1.0.0 and Trail Making Test B 1.0.0.
| Test | Score | What it is | Better |
|---|---|---|---|
| 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 |
| Stroop Color-Word Test | Congruent RT (ms) | Average RT when word meaning matches ink color. | Lower is better |
| Stroop Color-Word Test | Incongruent RT (ms) | Average RT when word meaning conflicts with ink color. | Lower is better |
| Stroop Color-Word Test | Stroop Effect (ms, primary) | Incongruent RT minus congruent RT. Primary measure of interference cost from automaticity. | Lower is better |
| Stroop Color-Word Test | Interference Score | (Incongruent RT - Neutral RT) / Neutral RT. Ratio-based measure controlling for baseline processing speed. | Lower is better |
| Stroop Color-Word Test | Congruent Accuracy (proportion) | Proportion correct on congruent trials. | Higher is better |
| Stroop Color-Word Test | Incongruent Accuracy (proportion) | Proportion correct on incongruent trials. More sensitive than congruent accuracy. | Higher 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 |
| Trail Making Test B | Completion Time (ms, primary) | Total time from first click to connecting the final circle. Primary measure of executive-mediated processing speed. | Lower is better |
| Trail Making Test B | Completion Time (sec) | Same as completion time, converted to seconds. | Lower is better |
| Trail Making Test B | Errors | Incorrect clicks (wrong circle). In TMT-B, errors often reflect sequencing or set-switching failures. | Lower is better |
| Trail Making Test B | Total Circles | Number of circles in the trail (16 for TMT-B: 8 numbers + 8 letters). | Informational |
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.
How to cite
ConductScience, Inc. Executive Control Battery guide, version 1.0.0. ConductCognition. https://conductcognition.com/batteries/executive-control/guide
Cite the guide version you used. Name the battery version (1.0.0) and the scoring versions listed in this guide.