Executive Function
Day-Night Task
Also called: day-night Stroop task, day/night task, day-night test, Stroop-like day-night task, sun and moon task
Measure inhibitory control in young children: they tap the moon when a card shows the sun and the sun when it shows the moon.
4-5 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
- 35
- Evidence grade
- C
- Registered clinical studies
- 9
What it measures
Measures holding back the obvious answer, in children of about 3 and a half to 7. A card shows a sun or a moon with stars, and the child taps the other picture: the moon for the sun, the sun for the moon. A first block pairs two patterns with the same two pictures, with nothing to hold back. The score is the share of sun and moon cards answered right.
Constructs
- Inhibitory control
- Working memory for rules
- Interference control
Research uses
- Child development and preschool research
- Executive function outcomes in early-childhood studies
- Within-study group comparison
How the paradigm works
The Day-Night Task measures a young child's ability to hold back the obvious answer and give another one. In the published task the child says "night" to a card with a sun and "day" to a card with a moon and stars (Gerstadt, Hong and Diamond, 1994). This version is answered by pointing: two pictures sit below the card, the sun card for day and the moon card for night, and the child taps the other picture, the moon for the sun and the sun for the moon. The cards keep the published colors, a white card with a yellow sun and a dark card with a yellow moon and stars, and each turns over from a plain back after 800 ms.
More about the paradigm
The session has two blocks. The first follows the control condition of the same study, in which two abstract designs take the same two answers: here squares call for the sun and stripes for the moon, two rules with nothing to hold back. The second is the day-night block. Each block starts with its rules, which an adult reads aloud, and up to 6 practice cards with feedback, ending once two in a row are right, as in the published training (Diamond, Kirkham and Amso, 2002). Then come 16 cards (standard; 12, 24 or 32), half of each card and never three of one card in a row, with no feedback; a wrong answer on either of the first two cards shows the rules again, as the published procedure repeats them. Cards stay until an answer, with no time limit, and the session takes about 4 minutes. Desktops, laptops and tablets; phones are left out, because young children need large pictures.
The main score is the share of sun and moon cards answered right. The share of pattern cards answered right, the difference between the two, and the median correct response time in each block and their difference are also reported. Children of 3 and a half to 4 and a half find the sun and moon cards hard while doing well on abstract designs, and children of 6 and 7 answer nearly every card right (Gerstadt et al., 1994), so the task suits children of about 3 and a half to 7. Older children and adults answer nearly every card right (Lagattuta, Sayfan and Monsour, 2011). Response times depend on the device, a finger or a mouse, so compare them within one device type. Answers under 100 ms count as anticipations. Scores support research and do not diagnose.
Scores
- Day-Night Accuracy%
- Share of sun and moon cards answered with the other picture.
- Higher is better
- Pattern Accuracy%
- Share of pattern cards answered with their picture: two rules with nothing to hold back.
- Under 75% is flagged
- Accuracy Cost%
- Pattern accuracy minus day-night accuracy.
- Larger means more trouble holding back the matching picture
- Day-Night Response Timems
- Median time to a right answer on sun and moon cards, from the moment the card turns over.
- Compare within one device type
- Pattern Response Timems
- Median time to a right answer on pattern cards.
- Compare within one device type
- Response Time Costms
- Day-night median minus pattern median.
- Larger means more slowing on sun and moon cards
- Day-Night Cards Scoredtrials
- Sun and moon cards answered at or after 100 ms.
- Informational
- Pattern Cards Scoredtrials
- Pattern cards answered at or after 100 ms.
- Informational
- Anticipationscount
- Answers under 100 ms from the moment the card turned over. They leave accuracy and response times.
- Lower is better
- Practice Blocks Passedcount
- Blocks whose practice reached two right answers in a row.
- Fewer than 2 is flagged
- Total Cardstrials
- Scored cards in the run, across both blocks.
- Informational
Use and evidence
35 papers from 2021 to 2025 name this task in their title or abstract, down 12% compared with 2016 to 2020. That ranks it 278 of 395 test families in our census. See the counts for every test.
Show the numbers
| Year | Papers |
|---|---|
| 2025 | 9 |
| 2024 | 4 |
| 2023 | 8 |
| 2022 | 9 |
| 2021 | 5 |
| 2020 | 8 |
| 2019 | 5 |
| 2018 | 3 |
| 2017 | 10 |
| 2016 | 14 |
| 2015 | 8 |
| 2014 | 8 |
| 2013 | 4 |
| 2012 | 2 |
| 2011 | 5 |
| 2010 | 6 |
| 2009 | 2 |
| 2008 | 4 |
| 2007 | 1 |
| 2006 | 0 |
| 2005 | 7 |
| 2004 | 1 |
| 2003 | 2 |
| 2002 | 1 |
| 2001 | 0 |
| 2000 | 0 |
Use grade D
30 to 99 papers from 2021 to 2025.
Evidence grade C
At least 2 test-retest papers, 30 reliability or validity papers or 3 registered clinical studies.
- Papers on test-retest reliability
- 1
- Papers on reliability or validity
- 4
- Registered clinical studies using it as an outcome
- 9
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 0.14.0, counted 2 November 2026 from OpenAlex and ClinicalTrials.gov.
Task design
The trial sequence as the test runs in ConductCognition.
- Cards
- A white card with a yellow sun and a dark card with a yellow moon and stars, 224 by 160 px, each turning over from a plain back after 800 ms.
- Answers
- Two pictures below the card, the sun card for day on the left and the moon card for night on the right. The child taps one; there is no time limit.
- Pattern block
- First, squares call for the sun and stripes for the moon: two rules with nothing to hold back, in place of the abstract designs of the published control.
- Day-night block
- Then the sun card calls for the moon and the moon card for the sun.
- Cards per block
- 16 (standard; 12, 24 or 32), half of each card, never three of one card in a row, in a seeded order.
- Practice
- Up to 6 cards with feedback in each block, ending after 2 right in a row. A wrong answer on either of the first 2 test cards shows the rules again.
- Score
- Share of sun and moon cards answered right. Answers under 100 ms count as anticipations and leave the scores.
The published task is answered aloud, and this version by pointing: the child taps the picture for night or day instead of saying the word. It is built for children of about 3 and a half to 7, with an adult reading the screens aloud, and computes no percentiles.
Quality checks
Each session is marked valid, needs review or invalid, with the reason, before you see its scores.
Scored rows: day_night_test from the scored run, a tap on the day or night picture with no time limit, correctness from the recorded card. Chance (50%) is judged on the pattern cards only: below chance invalidates and not above chance is flagged. Errors on the sun and moon cards are what the task measures, so they are never judged against chance. One picture on 90% of answers invalidates when pattern accuracy is not above chance. Most answers under 200 ms invalidate. Practice that never reached two right in a row, or pattern accuracy under 75%, is flagged.
Why these rules
Accuracy significantly below chance (one-sided exact test, p < .05) cannot come from guessing; it means the response mapping was reversed or the task was not followed (Slick, Sherman and Iverson 1999 treat below-chance forced-choice performance as definite response bias). Chance-level accuracy can be a real result in impaired participants, so it is only flagged. Young children often answer most sun and moon cards with the matching picture, which is the result the task measures, so only the pattern cards, which ask for two rules with nothing to hold back, show whether the task was followed (Gerstadt, Hong and Diamond 1994). One option on at least 90% of answered trials, when the correct options are balanced and accuracy is not above chance, means the answers did not depend on the items (the task counterpart of long-string responding in surveys; Curran 2016). An answer under 200 ms is faster than a simple visual reaction, so it cannot reflect the item. Following response-time effort screening for untimed tests (Wise and Kong 2005), the session is invalid only when at least half the answers are that fast. The practice and pattern limits are ConductScience choices.
No percentile. Scores and quality flags only.
Running this test
Settings you can change
| Setting | Standard | Allowed |
|---|---|---|
| Cards in each block | 16 (standard) | 12, 16 (standard), 24, 32 |
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 test: runs on desktops, laptops and tablets. 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 Day-Night Task in a web browser (ConductCognition task version 1.0.0, scoring version 1.0.0; Gerstadt, Hong and Diamond, 1994), with the standard settings (cards in each block: 16). The main score was day-night accuracy (share of sun and moon cards answered with the other picture).
ConductCognition versions: task version 1.0.0, scoring version 1.0.0. Every export records the versions each session used, for a methods section.
- Gerstadt, C. L., Hong, Y. J., & Diamond, A. (1994). The relationship between cognition and action: Performance of children 3 1/2-7 years old on a Stroop-like day-night test. Cognition, 53(2), 129-153. https://doi.org/10.1016/0010-0277(94)90068-XThe task, its control with abstract designs, and the ages it suits.
- Diamond, A., Kirkham, N., & Amso, D. (2002). Conditions under which young children can hold two rules in mind and inhibit a prepotent response. Developmental Psychology, 38(3), 352-362. https://doi.org/10.1037/0012-1649.38.3.352The cards, the training and the 16-card procedure, and accuracy at 4 and 4 and a half years.
- Simpson, A., & Riggs, K. J. (2005). Factors responsible for performance on the day-night task: Response set or semantics? Developmental Science, 8(4), 360-371. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-7687.2005.00424.xAnswers drawn from the same set as the cards make the task hard, as the two pictures are here.
- Ling, D. S., Wong, C. D., & Diamond, A. (2016). Do children need reminders on the day-night task, or simply some way to prevent them from responding too quickly? Cognitive Development, 37, 67-72. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cogdev.2015.10.003Errors at 4 years come from answering too quickly rather than from forgetting the rules.
- Lagattuta, K. H., Sayfan, L., & Monsour, M. (2011). A new measure for assessing executive function across a wide age range: Children and adults find happy-sad more difficult than day-night. Developmental Science, 14(3), 481-489. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-7687.2010.00994.xAccuracy near ceiling in older children and adults.
Source papers
- Gerstadt CL, Hong YJ, Diamond A (1994). The relationship between cognition and action: performance of children 3 1/2-7 years old on a Stroop-like day-night test. Cognition, 53(2):129-153.Paradigm source, 3 and a half to 7 years
Questions
How long does the Day-Night Task take?
About 4 to 5 minutes, as listed in the test library.
What device does a participant need?
Untimed test: runs on desktops, laptops and tablets. The browser must be Chrome, Edge, Firefox or Safari.
What scores does it produce?
Day-Night Accuracy, Pattern Accuracy, Accuracy Cost, Day-Night Response Time, Pattern Response Time, Response Time Cost, Day-Night Cards Scored, Pattern Cards Scored, Anticipations, Practice Blocks Passed and Total Cards. Each session is also marked valid, needs review or invalid, with the reason.
How widely is the Day-Night Task used in research?
35 papers from 2021 to 2025 name it in their title or abstract, down 12% compared with 2016 to 2020. That ranks it 278 of 395 test families in the ConductCognition test census (use grade D). Source: ConductCognition test census 0.14.0, counted 2 November 2026 from OpenAlex and ClinicalTrials.gov.
How much reliability evidence does the Day-Night Task have?
In the published research, 1 paper reports its test-retest reliability and 9 registered clinical studies use it as an outcome (evidence grade C in the ConductCognition test census).
Does it report a percentile?
No. Scores and quality flags only.
Which settings can a researcher change?
Cards in each block (12, 16 (standard), 24, 32). 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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