Executive Function
Clock Drawing Task
Collect timestamped drawing trajectories, replay every stroke, and export deterministic process measures in a browser-native research workflow.
3-6 minUntimed
Free to start: 10 free participants per account, then $0.99 per participant for academic research, or any yearly plan. Preview any test free after you sign up.
- Papers, 2021 to 2025
- 971
- Evidence grade
- A
- Registered clinical studies
- 281
What it measures
Captures command and optional copy clock drawings as timestamped browser-native strokes for reproducible process analysis.
Constructs
- Visuospatial organization
- Executive planning
- Semantic clock knowledge
- Graphomotor sequencing
Research uses
- Cognitive aging research
- Executive and visuospatial research batteries
- Remote process-measure collection
- Within-study command and copy comparison
How the paradigm works
Clock Drawing is a brief visuoconstruction and executive-planning task. Participants construct an analog clock from instructions and may then copy an original model in a separate condition.
More about the paradigm
ConductCognition stores normalized timestamped strokes and reports deterministic process measures. This research-use implementation does not provide diagnostic labels, disease probabilities, or equivalence claims to paper or proprietary digitizing-pen products.
Scores
- Total Elapsed Timems
- Time from condition presentation to completion.
- Descriptive
- First-Contact Latencyms
- Time before the first recorded drawing point.
- Descriptive
- Drawing Timems
- Summed active stroke duration.
- Descriptive
- Pause Timems
- Elapsed drawing interval not spent in active strokes.
- Descriptive
- Stroke Countcount
- Number of retained pointer strokes.
- Descriptive
- Normalized Path Lengthcanvas units
- Total trajectory length in normalized canvas coordinates.
- Descriptive
- Clock-Face Circularityscore
- Deterministic circularity estimate when a closed face stroke can be identified.
- Descriptive
Use and evidence
971 papers from 2021 to 2025 name this task in their title or abstract, up 11% compared with 2016 to 2020. That ranks it 29 of 582 test families in our census. See the counts for every test.
Show the numbers
| Year | Papers |
|---|---|
| 2025 | 210 |
| 2024 | 164 |
| 2023 | 217 |
| 2022 | 171 |
| 2021 | 209 |
| 2020 | 185 |
| 2019 | 176 |
| 2018 | 201 |
| 2017 | 172 |
| 2016 | 144 |
| 2015 | 185 |
| 2014 | 156 |
| 2013 | 154 |
| 2012 | 138 |
| 2011 | 125 |
| 2010 | 133 |
| 2009 | 121 |
| 2008 | 108 |
| 2007 | 76 |
| 2006 | 67 |
| 2005 | 56 |
| 2004 | 56 |
| 2003 | 37 |
| 2002 | 43 |
| 2001 | 24 |
| 2000 | 26 |
Use grade B
300 to 999 papers from 2021 to 2025.
Evidence grade A
At least 25 papers report its test-retest reliability and at least 25 registered clinical studies use it as an outcome.
- Papers on test-retest reliability
- 37
- Papers on reliability or validity
- 520
- Registered clinical studies using it as an outcome
- 281
Measured on ConductCognition
Pooled across the studies that feed our platform norms, by device group. A figure needs 50 or more people.
No pooled figure yet.
How the grades work
Use: A is 1,000 or more papers from 2021 to 2025, B 300 to 999, C 100 to 299, D 30 to 99 and E fewer than 30. Evidence: A means at least 25 papers report its test-retest reliability and at least 25 registered clinical studies use it as an outcome; B, at least 8 test-retest papers, and either 5 registered clinical studies or 150 reliability or validity papers; C, at least 2 test-retest papers, 30 reliability or validity papers or 3 registered clinical studies; D, little published measurement evidence found. The counts measure use. They include every paper that names the task in its title or abstract. Grades describe the published research on this task, not ConductCognition's version of it.
Source: ConductCognition test census 0.39.0, counted 31 October 2026 from OpenAlex and ClinicalTrials.gov.
Quality checks
Each session is marked valid, needs review or invalid, with the reason, before you see its scores.
Scored from the uploaded drawing, not trial rows. No behavioral validity rule: the drawing scorer's own warnings (time-out, empty drawing, mouse input) apply, and the test has no norms.
Why these rules
A drawing has no correct option or response window. Its quality checks come from the stored trajectory, which the clock-drawing scorer already reports.
No percentile. Scores and quality flags only.
Running this test
Settings you can change
| Setting | Standard | Allowed |
|---|---|---|
| Administration | Command only | Command only, Command and copy |
| Command drawing area | Blank | Blank, Pre-drawn circle |
| Maximum time per drawing (seconds) | 180 | 60 to 300 |
| Allow undo | Off | On or off |
| Allowed input | Stylus or direct touch | Stylus or direct touch, Any pointer, including mouse |
Yearly plans can change settings within these limits. Free and pay-as-you-go studies use the standard settings.
Need a setting this test does not have?
Devices and languages
- Untimed drawing test: standard settings need a touchscreen or stylus, such as a tablet. Participant devices
- Languages: English, Spanish, French, German, Italian, Portuguese (Brazil), Chinese (Simplified) and Japanese.
- Available on: Every plan, including the free plan.
- No percentile. Scores and quality flags only. How norms work
- Recruiting online? See the setup guides for Prolific, Sona Systems, CloudResearch Connect and Qualtrics.
Cite and describe
Participants completed the Clock Drawing Task in a web browser (ConductCognition task version 1.0.0, scoring version 1.0.0; Shulman, 2000), with the standard settings (administration: Command only; command drawing area: Blank; maximum time per drawing (seconds): 180; allow undo: Off; allowed input: Stylus or direct touch). The main score was total elapsed time (time from condition presentation to completion).
Paradigm source: Shulman (2000); Libon et al. digital clock-drawing research.
ConductCognition versions: task version 1.0.0, scoring version 1.0.0. Every export records the versions each session used, for a methods section.
Source papers
- No normative interpretation is enabled for Clock Drawing v1.Paradigm source, N/A
Questions
How long does the Clock Drawing Task take?
About 3 to 6 minutes, as listed in the test library.
What device does a participant need?
Untimed drawing test: standard settings need a touchscreen or stylus, such as a tablet. The browser must be Chrome, Edge, Firefox or Safari.
What scores does it produce?
Total Elapsed Time, First-Contact Latency, Drawing Time, Pause Time, Stroke Count, Normalized Path Length and Clock-Face Circularity. Each session is also marked valid, needs review or invalid, with the reason.
How widely is the Clock Drawing Task used in research?
971 papers from 2021 to 2025 name it in their title or abstract, up 11% compared with 2016 to 2020. That ranks it 29 of 582 test families in the ConductCognition test census (use grade B). Source: ConductCognition test census 0.39.0, counted 31 October 2026 from OpenAlex and ClinicalTrials.gov.
How much reliability evidence does the Clock Drawing Task have?
In the published research, 37 papers report its test-retest reliability and 281 registered clinical studies use it as an outcome (evidence grade A in the ConductCognition test census).
Does it report a percentile?
No. Scores and quality flags only.
Which settings can a researcher change?
Administration (Command only, Command and copy), command drawing area (Blank, Pre-drawn circle), maximum time per drawing (seconds) (60 to 300), allow undo (On or off) and allowed input (Stylus or direct touch, Any pointer, including mouse). Settings can be changed on yearly plans; free and pay-as-you-go studies use the standard settings.
Which languages can participants use?
Participants can take this test in English, Spanish, French, German, Italian, Portuguese (Brazil), Chinese (Simplified) and Japanese. English is on every plan, and the other languages come with yearly plans. Have a native speaker read the machine-translated text before launch.
Is this a clinical test?
No. ConductCognition is for research use only. It runs, scores and exports the test; clinical interpretation is outside the platform.
Every test: the full test list.
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