Response Inhibition
Error Awareness Task
Also called: EAT, error awareness paradigm, go/no-go error awareness task
Measure how often people notice their own errors: participants press for color words, let repeats and words in their own color pass, and press E when they notice a slip, scored as the share of errors signaled and the time to signal.
13-16 minTimed: desktop or laptop with a mouse or trackpad
Free to start: 10 free participants per account, then $0.99 per participant for academic research, or any yearly plan. Try it here first, with no account.
- Papers, 2021 to 2025
- 12
- Evidence grade
- D
- Registered clinical studies
- 1
What it measures
Measures how often people notice their own errors, and how quickly. Participants press the space bar for each color word except a repeat or a word in its own color, and press E as soon as they notice a press they should not have made.
Constructs
- Error awareness
- Performance monitoring
- Response inhibition
- Metacognition
Research uses
- Research on performance monitoring and self-awareness
- Error awareness in aging and substance use research, at the group level
- Studies pairing behavior with error-related brain signals
How the paradigm works
The Error Awareness Task measures how often people notice their own errors, and how quickly. Color words in colored ink appear one at a time: red, green, blue and yellow, written in the participant's language. Participants press the space bar for every word except two kinds, which they let pass: a repeat of the word just before, and a word written in its own color. When they press for one of those, they press E as soon as they notice. The task follows Hester and colleagues (2005), whose go/no-go task set these two rules against each other, with the color rule of their later studies (a word in its own color is let pass) and the speeded awareness press of Murphy and colleagues (2012), which times the signal from the error.
More about the paradigm
Each word shows for 400 ms on a dark panel, then a cross, for 2,000 ms in all, as in Murphy and colleagues. The standard test has 3 blocks (2 to 5) of 112 words: 96 go words, 8 repeats and 8 words in their own color, with at least three go words between two words to let pass, in an order drawn from the session's seed and with a short rest between blocks. 24 practice words with feedback come first.
An E press counts for an error from the error press to the end of the next word, so a signal that comes after the next word appears still counts, as Murphy and colleagues counted it. The main score, the error awareness rate, is the share of errors signaled. The time to signal runs from the error press to the first E press for it. The task also reports the share signaled for each kind of word, how often each kind was let pass, the press times of signaled and unsignaled errors, go time and misses, and E presses that followed no error. In the 56 healthy adults of Orr and Hester (2012) the share of errors signaled was 82.5% on average, ranging from 15% to 99%; in the first study of Murphy and colleagues it was 71.1%, and the awareness press came 611 ms after the error on average. A standard session gives about 20 errors, so one person's share is coarse, and the task is a research measure for group comparisons. Scores support research and do not diagnose.
Scores
- Error Awareness Rate%
- Share of errors, presses on a repeat or on a word in its own color, that an E press signaled before the end of the next word.
- A research measure compared between groups
- Time to Signalms
- Median time from the error press to the first E press that signaled it.
- Informational
- Mean Time to Signalms
- Mean time from the error press to the first E press that signaled it.
- Informational
- Awareness Rate, Repeats%
- Share of errors on repeated words that an E press signaled.
- Informational
- Awareness Rate, Color Matches%
- Share of errors on words in their own color that an E press signaled.
- Informational
- Words Let Pass%
- Share of repeats and words in their own color with no press, leaving out presses under 100 ms.
- Higher means more of them were let pass
- Repeats Let Pass%
- Share of repeated words with no press, leaving out presses under 100 ms.
- Higher means more of them were let pass
- Color Matches Let Pass%
- Share of words in their own color with no press, leaving out presses under 100 ms.
- Higher means more of them were let pass
- Errorscount
- Presses at or after 100 ms on a repeat or on a word in its own color.
- Quality check
- Signaled Errorscount
- Errors that an E press signaled.
- Quality check
- Signaled Error Timems
- Mean time of the presses on errors that were signaled, from the word's frame.
- Informational
- Unsignaled Error Timems
- Mean time of the presses on errors that were not signaled, from the word's frame.
- Informational
- Go Timems
- Mean time of the presses on go words, at or after 100 ms, from the word's frame.
- Informational
- Missed Go Words%
- Share of go words with no press within 2 seconds.
- Quality check
- E Presses Without an Errorcount
- E presses that came after no error, outside every error's window.
- Quality check
- Anticipationscount
- Presses under 100 ms from a word's frame, counted as neither go presses nor errors.
- Quality check
- Scored Wordstrials
- Test words in the run.
- Quality check
Use and evidence
12 papers from 2021 to 2025 name this task in their title or abstract, about the same as from 2016 to 2020. That ranks it 440 of 495 test families in our census. See the counts for every test.
Show the numbers
| Year | Papers |
|---|---|
| 2025 | 1 |
| 2024 | 1 |
| 2023 | 2 |
| 2022 | 3 |
| 2021 | 5 |
| 2020 | 3 |
| 2019 | 2 |
| 2018 | 2 |
| 2017 | 1 |
| 2016 | 4 |
| 2015 | 1 |
| 2014 | 1 |
| 2013 | 4 |
| 2012 | 5 |
| 2011 | 1 |
| 2010 | 1 |
| 2009 | 1 |
| 2008 | 1 |
| 2007 | 0 |
| 2006 | 0 |
| 2005 | 0 |
| 2004 | 0 |
| 2003 | 0 |
| 2002 | 0 |
| 2001 | 0 |
| 2000 | 0 |
Use grade E
Fewer than 30 papers from 2021 to 2025.
Evidence grade D
Little published measurement evidence found.
- Papers on test-retest reliability
- 0
- Papers on reliability or validity
- 2
- Registered clinical studies using it as an outcome
- 1
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 0.22.0, counted 2 November 2026 from OpenAlex and ClinicalTrials.gov.
Task design
The trial sequence as the test runs in ConductCognition.
- Words
- Red, green, blue and yellow, the Stroop test's color words in the participant's language, each in one of the four inks on a dark panel.
- Rules
- The space bar for every word except a repeat of the word just before and a word in its own color, which are let pass.
- Timing
- Each word for 400 ms from its frame, then a cross, 2,000 ms in all.
- Awareness
- The E key as soon as the participant notices a press on a word to let pass. An E press counts for that error until the end of the next word.
- Blocks
- 3 blocks (standard; 2 to 5) of 112 words: 96 go words, 8 repeats and 8 words in their own color, at least 3 go words between two words to let pass, with a rest between blocks.
- Practice
- 24 words, 2 repeats and 2 words in their own color, each followed by feedback for 1,500 ms.
- Scoring
- The share of errors signaled and the time from the error press to the E press. Presses under 100 ms count as neither go presses nor errors.
In Hester and colleagues (2005), most words were in their own color, a word in another color was let pass, and awareness was signaled on the next word. This version follows their later studies, where a word in its own color is let pass, and the speeded E press of Murphy and colleagues (2012).
Quality checks
Each session is marked valid, needs review or invalid, with the reason, before you see its scores.
Scored rows: error_awareness_test, press on go words (6 in 7) and withhold on repeats and color matches (1 in 7) within 2 s. Responding mainly on the words to let pass invalidates; not separating them from go words is flagged. Missed go responses and responses under 100 ms follow the timed-test rule. No errors, no E press after five or more errors, and E presses without an error at least as often as after one are flagged.
Why these rules
Accuracy against chance does not apply because withholding is correct on one word in seven. Responses concentrated on trials that needed none (one-sided Fisher exact test, p < .05) mean the instructions were reversed and invalidate; responses that do not separate the two trial types are flagged. Responding is the common, prepotent response here, so missing more than max(3, 25%) of response trials signals non-engagement (the platform's timed-test rule); any miss is flagged. Responses under 100 ms follow the timed-test rule. The share of errors signaled needs errors and E presses: with no errors it cannot be computed, no E press after several errors may mean the E key was not used, and frequent E presses without an error mean some presses do not mark noticed errors.
No percentile. Scores and quality flags only.
Running this test
Settings you can change
| Setting | Standard | Allowed |
|---|---|---|
| Blocks of 112 words | 3 | 2 to 5 |
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
- Timed test: participants need a desktop or laptop with a mouse or trackpad. 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 Error Awareness Task in a web browser (ConductCognition task version 1.0.0, scoring version 1.0.0; Hester et al., 2005; Murphy et al., 2012), with the standard settings (blocks of 112 words: 3). The main score was error awareness rate (share of errors, presses on a repeat or on a word in its own color, that an E press signaled before the end of the next word).
ConductCognition versions: task version 1.0.0, scoring version 1.0.0. Every export records the versions each session used, for a methods section.
- Hester, R., Foxe, J. J., Molholm, S., Shpaner, M., & Garavan, H. (2005). Neural mechanisms involved in error processing: A comparison of errors made with and without awareness. NeuroImage, 27(3), 602-608. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuroimage.2005.04.035
- Murphy, P. R., Robertson, I. H., Allen, D., Hester, R., & O'Connell, R. G. (2012). An electrophysiological signal that precisely tracks the emergence of error awareness. Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, 6, 65. https://doi.org/10.3389/fnhum.2012.00065The speeded E press, words for 400 ms in 2,000 ms, at least three go words between words to let pass, and the share and timing of signaled errors.
- Orr, C., & Hester, R. (2012). Error-related anterior cingulate cortex activity and the prediction of conscious error awareness. Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, 6, 177. https://doi.org/10.3389/fnhum.2012.00177The two rules across versions of the task, and the share of errors signaled in 56 healthy adults.
- Hester, R., Nestor, L., & Garavan, H. (2009). Impaired error awareness and anterior cingulate cortex hypoactivity in chronic cannabis users. Neuropsychopharmacology, 34(11), 2450-2458. https://doi.org/10.1038/npp.2009.67The earlier form of the task, with 25 words to let pass in each block of 225.
- Dali, G., Brosnan, M., Tiego, J., Johnson, B. P., Fornito, A., Bellgrove, M. A., & Hester, R. (2022). Examining the neural correlates of error awareness in a large fMRI study. Cerebral Cortex, 33(2), 458-468. https://doi.org/10.1093/cercor/bhac077One word to let pass in seven, in 402 adults.
Source papers
- Hester R, Foxe JJ, Molholm S, Shpaner M, Garavan H (2005). Neural mechanisms involved in error processing: a comparison of errors made with and without awareness. NeuroImage, 27(3):602-608.Paradigm source, Adults
- No normative data for this task.Paradigm source, N/A
Questions
How long does the Error Awareness Task take?
About 13 to 16 minutes, as listed in the test library.
What device does a participant need?
Timed test: participants need a desktop or laptop with a mouse or trackpad. The browser must be Chrome, Edge, Firefox or Safari.
What scores does it produce?
Error Awareness Rate, Time to Signal, Mean Time to Signal, Awareness Rate, Repeats, Awareness Rate, Color Matches, Words Let Pass, Repeats Let Pass, Color Matches Let Pass, Errors, Signaled Errors, Signaled Error Time, Unsignaled Error Time, Go Time, Missed Go Words, E Presses Without an Error, Anticipations and Scored Words. Each session is also marked valid, needs review or invalid, with the reason.
How widely is the Error Awareness Task used in research?
12 papers from 2021 to 2025 name it in their title or abstract, about the same as from 2016 to 2020. That ranks it 440 of 495 test families in the ConductCognition test census (use grade E). Source: ConductCognition test census 0.22.0, counted 2 November 2026 from OpenAlex and ClinicalTrials.gov.
How much reliability evidence does the Error Awareness Task have?
In the published research, 0 papers report its test-retest reliability and 1 registered clinical study uses it as an outcome (evidence grade D in the ConductCognition test census).
Does it report a percentile?
No. Scores and quality flags only.
Which settings can a researcher change?
Blocks of 112 words (2 to 5). 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, with its words in the same language. 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.
Run this test in your next study
Start free with 10 free participants on any test, then use participant credits or a yearly plan.
Related tests