Social Cognition
Go/No-Go Association Task
Also called: GNAT, go/no-go association test
Measure how strongly fruit and insects are each linked with good or bad: participants press for pictures of one category and one kind of face within a deadline, scored by sensitivity, d′.
8-10 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. Preview any test free after you sign up.
- Papers, 2021 to 2025
- 34
- Evidence grade
- C
- Registered clinical studies
- 6
OWhat it measures
Measures how strongly a category is linked with good or bad from how well people pick out its pictures when they share a response with happy or with sad faces. Participants press the space bar within a deadline for pictures of fruit or insects and of one kind of face, and do nothing for the others.
Constructs
- Implicit association strength
- Attitudes
- Speeded categorization
Research uses
- Social cognition and attitude research at the group level
- Attitudes toward one category without a contrasting category
- Method studies of implicit measures
How the paradigm works
The Go/No-Go Association Task measures how strongly a category is linked with good or bad from how well people pick out its pictures when it shares one response with an attribute. Labels at the top of the screen name a target category, fruit or insects, and an attribute, good (happy faces) or bad (sad faces). Pictures of either labeled category call for the space bar within a deadline; pictures of the other target and the other attribute call for nothing. After each picture a green O or a red X shows for 100 ms.
More about the paradigm
The task follows Experiment 1 of Nosek and Banaji (2001), with pictures in place of the source's words so it runs in every language: five Noto Emoji pictures each of fruit, insects, happy faces and sad faces. Four test blocks pair each target with each attribute, in an order drawn from the session's seed. Each opens with 16 warm-up pictures and a reminder, then 60 scored pictures (40 to 80 in the settings), half calling for the space bar, with a 600 ms deadline (500 to 850, the range the source advises). A 300 ms gap follows each picture. Two practice blocks of 30 pictures with a 1,000 ms deadline come first, one for fruit and insects and one for happy and sad faces.
Sensitivity, d′, is computed for each block from hits and false alarms, with the source's correction for rates of 0 or 1, and a block with d′ at or below 0 is left out, as in the source. The main score, the GNAT effect, is the mean d′ of the blocks pairing fruit with good and insects with bad minus the mean d′ of the other two. The task also reports the effect for fruit and for insects alone, each block's d′, the same comparisons in hit response times (the source's Experiment 5), and the hit and false alarm rates. In Nosek and Banaji's Experiment 1, d′ was 2.77 for fruit with good against 1.65 for fruit with bad, and 2.69 for bugs with bad against 1.80 for bugs with good. Pictures may give effects of a different size than words. A GNAT effect is a research measure for group comparisons and says little about one person. Scores support research and do not diagnose.
Scores
- GNAT Effectd'
- Mean d′ of the blocks pairing fruit with good and insects with bad, minus the mean d′ of the blocks pairing fruit with bad and insects with good. Blank when a block was left out.
- Positive values mean fruit goes more readily with good and insects with bad; not better or worse
- Fruit Effectd'
- d′ with good minus d′ with bad, in the blocks with fruit as the target.
- Positive values mean fruit is linked more with good
- Insect Effectd'
- d′ with good minus d′ with bad, in the blocks with insects as the target.
- Negative values mean insects are linked more with bad
- d′, Fruit and Goodd'
- Sensitivity in the block pairing fruit with good: the z score of the hit rate minus that of the false alarm rate.
- Higher means the go pictures were told apart more easily
- d′, Fruit and Badd'
- Sensitivity in the block pairing fruit with bad.
- Higher means the go pictures were told apart more easily
- d′, Insects and Goodd'
- Sensitivity in the block pairing insects with good.
- Higher means the go pictures were told apart more easily
- d′, Insects and Badd'
- Sensitivity in the block pairing insects with bad.
- Higher means the go pictures were told apart more easily
- Fruit Latency Effectms
- Mean hit time with bad minus mean hit time with good, in the blocks with fruit as the target.
- Positive values mean faster responses when fruit shares the response with good
- Insect Latency Effectms
- Mean hit time with bad minus mean hit time with good, in the blocks with insects as the target.
- Negative values mean faster responses when insects share the response with bad
- Hit Rate%
- Share of go pictures answered with a press within the deadline.
- Informational
- False Alarm Rate%
- Share of no-go pictures answered with a press.
- Informational
- Mean Hit Timems
- Mean time of the hits, from the frame that drew the picture.
- Informational
- Blocks at Chancecount
- Blocks with d′ at or below 0, which are left out of the effects.
- Quality check
- Anticipationscount
- Presses within 100 ms of a picture, counted as neither hits nor false alarms.
- Quality check
- Scored Trialstrials
- Scored pictures in the run.
- Quality check
Use and evidence
34 papers from 2021 to 2025 name this task in their title or abstract, down 13% compared with 2016 to 2020. That ranks it 285 of 395 test families in our census. See the counts for every test.
Show the numbers
| Year | Papers |
|---|---|
| 2025 | 10 |
| 2024 | 3 |
| 2023 | 10 |
| 2022 | 8 |
| 2021 | 3 |
| 2020 | 7 |
| 2019 | 3 |
| 2018 | 9 |
| 2017 | 8 |
| 2016 | 12 |
| 2015 | 17 |
| 2014 | 8 |
| 2013 | 12 |
| 2012 | 8 |
| 2011 | 10 |
| 2010 | 11 |
| 2009 | 7 |
| 2008 | 5 |
| 2007 | 4 |
| 2006 | 4 |
| 2005 | 1 |
| 2004 | 0 |
| 2003 | 0 |
| 2002 | 0 |
| 2001 | 2 |
| 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
- 2
- Papers on reliability or validity
- 21
- Registered clinical studies using it as an outcome
- 6
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 31 October 2026 from OpenAlex and ClinicalTrials.gov.
Task design
The trial sequence as the test runs in ConductCognition.
- Pictures
- Noto Emoji pictures, 5 each of fruit, insects, happy faces (good) and sad faces (bad). No words, so the task runs in every app language.
- Blocks
- 4 test blocks pairing fruit or insects with good or bad, in a seeded order. Pictures of the two labeled categories call for the space bar; pictures of the other two call for nothing.
- Trials
- In each block, 16 warm-up pictures, a reminder, then 60 scored pictures (standard; 40, 60 or 80), 15 of each category in a seeded order with no more than 4 go or 4 no-go pictures in a row.
- Deadline
- 600 ms (standard; 500 to 850) from the frame that drew the picture. A press ends the picture.
- Feedback
- A green O or a red X below the picture for 100 ms, within a 300 ms gap before the next picture.
- Practice
- 2 blocks of 30 pictures with a 1,000 ms deadline: fruit against insects, then happy against sad faces. Which one calls for a press is drawn from the seed.
- Scoring
- d′ for each block, a rate of 0 or 1 corrected by 0.35 over the trials. Presses under 100 ms count as neither hits nor false alarms.
Nosek and Banaji (2001) used words and several deadlines. Here the items are pictures and one deadline is used, so effects may differ in size from theirs.
Quality checks
Each session is marked valid, needs review or invalid, with the reason, before you see its scores.
Scored rows: go_nogo_association_trial from the scored run, a press required on go pictures and withheld on the others. Presses concentrated on the no-go pictures invalidate, and presses that do not separate them are flagged. Misses are what the deadline produces, so only a session with no presses is invalid and a long run of misses is flagged. Presses under 100 ms on more than max(2, 20%) of the scored trials invalidate. A block with d′ at or below 0 is flagged, and two or more invalidate.
Why these rules
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. Missed targets are what this test measures, so missed responses never invalidate on their own. A session with no responses is invalid. An unbroken run of misses covering at least half the response trials (minimum 8) may mean the participant stopped, so the session is flagged and its percentile withheld. Nosek and Banaji (2001) left out blocks with d′ at or below 0, which show no discrimination, and removed participants with such performance; two such blocks leave no pair of blocks to compare. Missed responses and responses under 100 ms keep the platform's timed-test rule: more than max(3, 25%) missed responses or more than max(2, 20%) responses under 100 ms invalidate, and any is flagged. A response under 100 ms cannot be a reaction to the stimulus.
No percentile. Scores and quality flags only.
Running this test
Settings you can change
| Setting | Standard | Allowed |
|---|---|---|
| Response deadline (ms) | 600 | 500 to 850 |
| Scored trials per block | 60 (standard) | 40, 60 (standard), 80 |
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 Go/No-Go Association Task in a web browser (ConductCognition task version 1.0.0, scoring version 1.0.0; Nosek & Banaji, 2001), with the standard settings (response deadline (ms): 600; scored trials per block: 60). The main score was GNAT effect (mean d′ of the blocks pairing fruit with good and insects with bad, minus the mean d′ of the blocks pairing fruit with bad and insects with good).
ConductCognition versions: task version 1.0.0, scoring version 1.0.0. Every export records the versions each session used, for a methods section.
- Nosek, B. A., & Banaji, M. R. (2001). The Go/No-Go Association Task. Social Cognition, 19(6), 625-666. https://doi.org/10.1521/soco.19.6.625.20886
- Banaji, M. R., & Greenwald, A. G. (1995). Implicit gender stereotyping in judgments of fame. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 68(2), 181-198. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.68.2.181The correction for hit or false alarm rates of 0 or 1.
Source papers
- Nosek BA, Banaji MR (2001). The Go/No-Go Association Task. Social Cognition, 19(6):625-666.Paradigm source, Adults
- No normative data for this task.Paradigm source, N/A
Questions
How long does the Go/No-Go Association Task take?
About 8 to 10 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?
GNAT Effect, Fruit Effect, Insect Effect, d′, Fruit and Good, d′, Fruit and Bad, d′, Insects and Good, d′, Insects and Bad, Fruit Latency Effect, Insect Latency Effect, Hit Rate, False Alarm Rate, Mean Hit Time, Blocks at Chance, Anticipations and Scored Trials. Each session is also marked valid, needs review or invalid, with the reason.
How widely is the Go/No-Go Association Task used in research?
34 papers from 2021 to 2025 name it in their title or abstract, down 13% compared with 2016 to 2020. That ranks it 285 of 395 test families in the ConductCognition test census (use grade D). Source: ConductCognition test census 0.14.0, counted 31 October 2026 from OpenAlex and ClinicalTrials.gov.
How much reliability evidence does the Go/No-Go Association Task have?
In the published research, 2 papers report its test-retest reliability and 6 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?
Response deadline (ms) (500 to 850) and scored trials per block (40, 60 (standard), 80). 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.
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