Attention
Psychomotor Vigilance Task
Track sustained attention, lapses, and fatigue-sensitive vigilance performance in the browser.
4-6 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
- 972
- Evidence grade
- A
- Registered clinical studies
- 395
What it measures
Measures sustained attention by requiring rapid responses to infrequent visual targets over variable waiting intervals.
Constructs
- Sustained attention
- Vigilance stability
- Fatigue sensitivity
- Alertness regulation
Research uses
- Sleep deprivation studies
- Fatigue monitoring in shift-work cohorts
- Medication sedation profiling
- Longitudinal attention stability tracking
How the paradigm works
The Psychomotor Vigilance Task (PVT) measures sustained attention by requiring immediate responses to infrequent visual targets after unpredictable waiting intervals. This structure minimizes strategic anticipation and isolates vigilance decline over time.
More about the paradigm
Unlike short burst reaction-time paradigms, PVT emphasizes attentional stability. A participant may begin with fast responses but accumulate lapses (very slow or missed responses) as fatigue, sleep pressure, or reduced alertness increases.
The PVT is widely used in sleep, fatigue, and operational-performance research because lapse counts and response variability are highly sensitive to vigilance impairment.
Scores
- Mean Reaction Timems
- Average valid response latency across scored trials.
- Lower is better
- Median Reaction Timems
- Median response latency, less influenced by outlier lapses.
- Lower is better
- RT Standard Deviationms
- Intraindividual variability of response speed.
- Lower is better
- Lapsescount
- Missed responses or responses slower than the lapse threshold set for the study (500 ms standard).
- Lower is better
- False Startscount
- Anticipatory responses under 100ms.
- Lower is better
- Response Rate%
- Proportion of trials with any response before timeout.
- Higher is better
Use and evidence
972 papers from 2021 to 2025 name this task in their title or abstract, up 32% compared with 2016 to 2020. That ranks it 28 of 582 test families in our census. See the counts for every test.
Show the numbers
| Year | Papers |
|---|---|
| 2025 | 263 |
| 2024 | 189 |
| 2023 | 187 |
| 2022 | 158 |
| 2021 | 175 |
| 2020 | 184 |
| 2019 | 148 |
| 2018 | 163 |
| 2017 | 139 |
| 2016 | 103 |
| 2015 | 112 |
| 2014 | 91 |
| 2013 | 90 |
| 2012 | 63 |
| 2011 | 54 |
| 2010 | 58 |
| 2009 | 29 |
| 2008 | 50 |
| 2007 | 34 |
| 2006 | 39 |
| 2005 | 28 |
| 2004 | 16 |
| 2003 | 10 |
| 2002 | 8 |
| 2001 | 6 |
| 2000 | 2 |
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
- 27
- Papers on reliability or validity
- 192
- Registered clinical studies using it as an outcome
- 395
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 rows: pvt_test, one key with a 1,500 ms window. No response at all invalidates; a run of missed responses covering half the trials (minimum 8) is flagged and withholds the percentile; scattered lapses do not. More than max(2, 20%) responses under 100 ms invalidate; any is flagged.
Why these rules
Lapses are a primary outcome of the PVT under sleep loss (Basner and Dinges 2011), so they are not treated as non-engagement. 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. 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.
Running this test
Settings you can change
| Setting | Standard | Allowed |
|---|---|---|
| Number of test trials | 40 | 20 to 80 |
| Lapse threshold (ms) | 500 | 300 to 1,000 |
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.
- Recruiting online? See the setup guides for Prolific, Sona Systems, CloudResearch Connect and Qualtrics.
Included in these batteries
Each battery runs this test with others in a fixed order, with standard settings.
- Sleep and Fatigue Battery4 tests, 23 minutes per participant
- Medication Studies Battery5 tests, 26 minutes per participant
Cite and describe
Participants completed the Psychomotor Vigilance Task in a web browser (ConductCognition task version 1.0.0, scoring version 1.0.1; Dinges & Powell, 1985), with the standard settings (number of test trials: 40; lapse threshold (ms): 500). The main score was mean reaction time (average valid response latency across scored trials).
Paradigm source: Dinges & Powell (1985).
ConductCognition versions: task version 1.0.0, scoring version 1.0.1. Every export records the versions each session used, for a methods section.
Source papers
- No platform-matched normative source is currently seeded for this task in ConductCognition.Paradigm source, N/A
Questions
How long does the Psychomotor Vigilance Task take?
About 4 to 6 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?
Mean Reaction Time, Median Reaction Time, RT Standard Deviation, Lapses, False Starts and Response Rate. Each session is also marked valid, needs review or invalid, with the reason.
How widely is the Psychomotor Vigilance Task used in research?
972 papers from 2021 to 2025 name it in their title or abstract, up 32% compared with 2016 to 2020. That ranks it 28 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 Psychomotor Vigilance Task have?
In the published research, 27 papers report its test-retest reliability and 395 registered clinical studies use it as an outcome (evidence grade A in the ConductCognition test census).
Which settings can a researcher change?
Number of test trials (20 to 80) and lapse threshold (ms) (300 to 1,000). 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.
Run this test in your next study
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