Attention
Value-Driven Capture Task
Also called: value-driven attentional capture, VDAC task, reward-driven attentional capture, reward-associated distractor task
Measure how much a color that once earned points slows the search for a shape: participants earn points for finding two colors, then search for an odd shape while those colors appear on other shapes.
11-13 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
- 53
- Evidence grade
- C
- Registered clinical studies
- 0
What it measures
Measures how much a color that once earned points slows the search for a shape. In training, participants find the circle in one of two colors and press F or J for the line inside it; one color usually earns 5 points and the other 1. In the test, with no points, they find the odd shape while another shape sometimes has a color that earned points.
Constructs
- Attention to reward
- Value-driven attentional capture
- Reward learning
- Selective attention
Research uses
- Reward and attention research
- Addiction and impulsivity research
- Within-study group comparison
How the paradigm works
The Value-Driven Capture Task measures how much a color that once earned points pulls attention away from a search. It follows the training and test design of Anderson, Laurent and Yantis (2011). In training, six circles ring a central cross, each in its own color and each with a short white line. One circle has one of two reward colors, amber or cyan. Participants find it and press F if its line is horizontal or J if it is vertical, within 800 ms. Correct answers earn points: one color, drawn for each session, earns 5 points on 80% of its trials and 1 point on the rest, and the other color the reverse. Participants are told only that some answers earn more points than others.
More about the paradigm
In the test, with no points, the six shapes are one diamond among circles or one circle among diamonds, and participants press F or J for the line in the odd shape within 1,500 ms. Every shape has its own color, and participants are told to ignore the colors. On a third of the trials another shape has the color that earned more points, on a third the color that earned fewer, and on a third neither, so the rewarded colors never mark the target. The standard session is 240 training trials and 120 test trials in seeded random orders, after 8 and 6 practice trials with feedback, with a break halfway through training: about 11 to 13 minutes. Red and green, the reward colors of the source, look alike to people with red-green color blindness, so this version uses amber and cyan, chosen to stay distinct from every other color in the display under simulated color blindness.
The main score is the high-value cost: mean correct test response time with a shape in the color that earned more minus with no shape in a rewarded color. Positive values mean the formerly rewarded color slowed the search, the value-driven capture Anderson and colleagues reported, about 15 ms in their experiments. The same cost for the low-value color and the difference between the two are also reported; the difference separates the part of the slowing that depends on the points from the part that comes from the color having been a target. Means leave out answers more than 3 SD from their condition's mean, as in the source. Accuracy in each condition, training accuracy, training response times to each color and the points earned are reported too. Responses under 100 ms count as anticipations. The response-time cost did not hold steady within people across visits four weeks apart (r = .11; Anderson and Kim, 2019), so the score suits group comparisons, not single people.
Scores
- High-Value Capture Costms
- Mean correct test response time with a shape in the color that earned more points minus with no shape in a rewarded color.
- Positive values mean the formerly rewarded color slowed the search
- Low-Value Capture Costms
- Mean correct test response time with a shape in the color that earned fewer points minus with no shape in a rewarded color.
- Positive values mean that color slowed the search
- Value Effectms
- Mean correct test response time with the high-value color minus with the low-value color.
- Positive values mean more slowing by the color that earned more
- Response Time With the High-Value Colorms
- Mean correct test response time with a shape in the color that earned more, after trimming.
- Lower is faster
- Response Time With the Low-Value Colorms
- Mean correct test response time with a shape in the color that earned fewer, after trimming.
- Lower is faster
- Response Time With No Rewarded Colorms
- Mean correct test response time when no shape had a rewarded color, after trimming.
- Lower is faster
- High-Value Capture Cost, Mediansms
- Median correct test response time with the high-value color minus with no rewarded color, without trimming.
- Positive values mean the formerly rewarded color slowed the search
- Test Accuracy%
- Share of all test trials answered with the key for the line in the odd shape.
- Higher is better
- Accuracy With the High-Value Color%
- Share of test trials with the high-value color answered correctly, leaving out responses under 100 ms.
- Higher is better
- Accuracy With the Low-Value Color%
- Share of test trials with the low-value color answered correctly, leaving out responses under 100 ms.
- Higher is better
- Accuracy With No Rewarded Color%
- Share of test trials with no rewarded color answered correctly, leaving out responses under 100 ms.
- Higher is better
- High-Value Error Effect%
- Accuracy with no rewarded color minus accuracy with the high-value color.
- Positive values mean more errors with the high-value color
- Training Accuracy%
- Share of training trials answered with the key for the line in the circle in a reward color.
- Under 60% is flagged for review
- Training Response Time, High-Value Colorms
- Mean correct training response time when the target had the color that earned more.
- Lower is faster
- Training Response Time, Low-Value Colorms
- Mean correct training response time when the target had the color that earned fewer.
- Lower is faster
- Points Earnedpoints
- Points earned in training.
- Informational
- Test Trials Used With the High-Value Colortrials
- Correct test trials with the high-value color at or after 100 ms, before trimming.
- Fewer than 20 is flagged
- Test Trials Used With the Low-Value Colortrials
- Correct test trials with the low-value color at or after 100 ms, before trimming.
- Informational
- Test Trials Used With No Rewarded Colortrials
- Correct test trials with no rewarded color at or after 100 ms, before trimming.
- Fewer than 20 is flagged
- Anticipationscount
- Test responses under 100 ms from the shapes' onset.
- Lower is better
- Missed Responsescount
- Test trials with no key press within 1,500 ms.
- Lower is better
- Test Trialstrials
- Test trials in the scored run.
- Informational
- Training Trialstrials
- Training trials in the scored run.
- Informational
Use and evidence
53 papers from 2021 to 2025 name this task in their title or abstract, down 39% compared with 2016 to 2020. That ranks it 252 of 395 test families in our census. See the counts for every test.
Show the numbers
| Year | Papers |
|---|---|
| 2025 | 13 |
| 2024 | 13 |
| 2023 | 9 |
| 2022 | 15 |
| 2021 | 3 |
| 2020 | 20 |
| 2019 | 14 |
| 2018 | 18 |
| 2017 | 18 |
| 2016 | 17 |
| 2015 | 10 |
| 2014 | 12 |
| 2013 | 7 |
| 2012 | 6 |
| 2011 | 3 |
| 2010 | 0 |
| 2009 | 0 |
| 2008 | 0 |
| 2007 | 0 |
| 2006 | 0 |
| 2005 | 0 |
| 2004 | 0 |
| 2003 | 0 |
| 2002 | 0 |
| 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
- 3
- Papers on reliability or validity
- 14
- Registered clinical studies using it as an outcome
- 0
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.
- Display
- Six outlined shapes on a ring around a central cross, each in its own color and each with a short white line.
- Training
- Six circles. The target is the one circle in amber or cyan; its line is horizontal or vertical, and every other line is tilted 45 degrees.
- Points
- One reward color, drawn for each session, earns 5 points on 80% of its correct answers and 1 point on the rest; the other color the reverse. Points show for 800 ms.
- Test
- No points. One diamond among circles or one circle among diamonds; a third of the trials have another shape in the high-value color, a third in the low-value color and a third in neither.
- Keys
- F for a horizontal line and J for a vertical one, shown under the shapes on every trial.
- Fixation
- 400, 500 or 600 ms, at random.
- Response window
- 800 ms in training and 1,500 ms in the test.
- Trial mix
- 240 training trials (standard; 120 to 360) and 120 test trials (standard; 96 to 288), in seeded random orders, with a break halfway through training.
- Practice
- 8 training and 6 test trials with feedback for 800 ms. In the test, only a wrong, slow or early answer gets a message, for 1,000 ms.
- Score
- Mean correct test response time with a shape in the high-value color minus with no shape in a rewarded color.
Anderson, Laurent and Yantis (2011) paid money and used red and green as the reward colors. This version counts points, which a study may pay for, and uses amber and cyan, which stay distinct for people with red-green color blindness. Points show for 800 ms in place of 1,500 ms, to keep the session near 12 minutes. The test has a third of its trials in each condition, as in Anderson and Kim (2019).
Quality checks
Each session is marked valid, needs review or invalid, with the reason, before you see its scores.
Scored rows: value_driven_capture_test from the scored run, F or J for the line in the odd shape (chance 50%) within 1,500 ms, correctness from the recorded key. Below chance invalidates and not above chance is flagged. One key on 90% of answers invalidates when accuracy is not above chance. Missed responses and responses under 100 ms follow the timed-test rule. Fewer than 20 correct trials with a high-value distractor or with none is flagged, and so is training accuracy under 60%; both withhold the percentile.
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. 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). 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. The cost is a difference between two means, so it needs enough correct trials in each condition, and it depends on the colors having been paired with points in training; the limits of 20 trials and 60% are ConductScience choices.
No percentile. Scores and quality flags only.
Running this test
Settings you can change
| Setting | Standard | Allowed |
|---|---|---|
| Training trials | 240 | 120 to 360 |
| Test trials | 120 | 96 to 288 |
| Payment line | Hypothetical points (standard) | Hypothetical points (standard), The study pays for points |
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 Value-Driven Capture Task in a web browser (ConductCognition task version 1.0.0, scoring version 1.0.0; Anderson, Laurent and Yantis, 2011; Anderson and Kim, 2019), with the standard settings (training trials: 240; test trials: 120; payment line: Hypothetical points). The main score was high-value capture cost (mean correct test response time with a shape in the color that earned more points minus with no shape in a rewarded color).
ConductCognition versions: task version 1.0.0, scoring version 1.0.0. Every export records the versions each session used, for a methods section.
- Anderson, B. A., Laurent, P. A., & Yantis, S. (2011). Value-driven attentional capture. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 108(25), 10367-10371. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1104047108The paradigm: colors that earned high or low rewards in training slow a later search for a shape when another shape has one of them.
- Anderson, B. A., & Kim, H. (2019). Test-retest reliability of value-driven attentional capture. Behavior Research Methods, 51(2), 720-726. https://doi.org/10.3758/s13428-018-1079-7A third of test trials in each condition; the response-time cost did not hold steady within people across visits (r = .11).
- Theeuwes, J. (1992). Perceptual selectivity for color and form. Perception & Psychophysics, 51(6), 599-606. https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03211656The search for the odd shape that the test is built on.
- Rusz, D., Le Pelley, M. E., Kompier, M. A. J., Mait, L., & Bijleveld, E. (2020). Reward-driven distraction: A meta-analysis. Psychological Bulletin, 146(10), 872-899. https://doi.org/10.1037/bul0000296Reward-related distractors slow performance across 91 studies, with a small average effect.
- Machado, G. M., Oliveira, M. M., & Fernandes, L. A. F. (2009). A physiologically-based model for simulation of color vision deficiency. IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics, 15(6), 1291-1298. https://doi.org/10.1109/TVCG.2009.113The simulation used to choose colors that stay distinct for people with color blindness.
Source papers
- Anderson BA, Laurent PA, Yantis S (2011). Value-driven attentional capture. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 108(25):10367-10371.Paradigm source, Adults
Questions
How long does the Value-Driven Capture Task take?
About 11 to 13 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?
High-Value Capture Cost, Low-Value Capture Cost, Value Effect, Response Time With the High-Value Color, Response Time With the Low-Value Color, Response Time With No Rewarded Color, High-Value Capture Cost, Medians, Test Accuracy, Accuracy With the High-Value Color, Accuracy With the Low-Value Color, Accuracy With No Rewarded Color, High-Value Error Effect, Training Accuracy, Training Response Time, High-Value Color, Training Response Time, Low-Value Color, Points Earned, Test Trials Used With the High-Value Color, Test Trials Used With the Low-Value Color, Test Trials Used With No Rewarded Color, Anticipations, Missed Responses, Test Trials and Training Trials. Each session is also marked valid, needs review or invalid, with the reason.
How widely is the Value-Driven Capture Task used in research?
53 papers from 2021 to 2025 name it in their title or abstract, down 39% compared with 2016 to 2020. That ranks it 252 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 Value-Driven Capture Task have?
In the published research, 3 papers report its test-retest reliability and 0 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?
Training trials (120 to 360), test trials (96 to 288) and payment line (Hypothetical points (standard), The study pays for points). 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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