Processing Speed
Visuomotor Adaptation Task
Also called: visuomotor rotation task, cursor rotation task, center-out reaching task
Measure motor learning as participants reach through targets with a mouse or trackpad while the cursor is turned, then reach without it to show the aftereffect.
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
- 405
- Evidence grade
- C
- Registered clinical studies
- 6
What it measures
Measures motor adaptation. Participants move a cursor from a center circle through targets with a mouse or trackpad while the cursor is turned by a fixed angle, then reach without seeing it. The main score is adaptation: how far the hand turns to make up for the rotation.
Constructs
- Sensorimotor adaptation
- Motor learning
- Implicit and explicit learning
- Visuomotor control
Research uses
- Motor learning and aging research
- Neurological and movement research
- Cerebellar and basal ganglia studies
- Within-study group comparison
How the paradigm works
The visuomotor adaptation task measures how people adjust their movements when what they see no longer matches what their hand does. Participants use a mouse or trackpad to move a dot from a circle in the middle of the screen through a target, in one fast, straight movement. The usual pointer is hidden and the program draws the dot. Targets appear in 8 directions 45 degrees apart, or in the 4 diagonal directions, each direction once per round in an order drawn from the session's seed, at 0.35 of the screen's shorter side from the start.
More about the paradigm
After 8 practice reaches the task has three parts. In 32 baseline reaches the dot follows the hand. In 96 rotation reaches the dot turns 30 degrees about the start circle, counterclockwise or clockwise as drawn from the session's seed, so a reach straight at the target misses it; participants are told only that the dot may not move with their hand. In 16 final reaches the dot disappears as the hand leaves the start circle and participants aim straight at the target, so any turn of the hand that remains is the aftereffect. Participants hold the dot in the start circle for 500 ms before each target, the dot freezes for 500 ms where the hand crossed the target distance, and a movement slower than 500 ms shows Too slow, as in the online study of Tsay et al. (2021). Every reach saves the pointer path, the hand angle where the hand crossed the target distance, the reaction time and the movement time. A study can set the rotation, its direction, the number of directions and the number of rotation reaches.
The main score is adaptation: the mean hand angle over the last 24 rotation reaches minus the participant's mean over the last 16 baseline reaches, signed so that turning the hand against the rotation is positive. Early adaptation covers the first 8 rotation reaches and the aftereffect the first 8 reaches without the dot (Taylor et al., 2014), and adaptation is also given as a share of the rotation. Reaches more than 90 degrees from the target are left out (Tsay et al., 2021). In the sources, people made up most of the rotation during the block, and an aftereffect remained once the dot was gone. The scores support research and do not diagnose.
Scores
- Adaptationdegrees
- Mean hand angle over the last 24 rotation reaches minus the mean over the last 16 baseline reaches, signed so that turning the hand against the rotation is positive.
- Higher means more of the rotation was made up; full adaptation equals the rotation
- Early Adaptationdegrees
- The baseline-corrected hand angle over the first 8 rotation reaches.
- Higher means faster early learning
- Aftereffectdegrees
- The baseline-corrected hand angle over the first 8 reaches without the dot, when participants aim straight at the target.
- Higher means more adaptation remained once the dot was gone
- Adaptation Share%
- Adaptation divided by the rotation.
- 1 means the rotation was fully made up
- Reaction Timems
- Median time from the target appearing to the hand moving 1/7 of the target distance, over reaches of at least 100 ms.
- Lower is faster
- Movement Timems
- Median time from movement start to crossing the target distance.
- Lower is faster
- Baseline Biasdegrees
- Mean signed hand angle over the last 16 baseline reaches, subtracted from the other angle scores.
- Near 0 means baseline reaches went straight at the targets
- Baseline Variabilitydegrees
- SD of the hand angle over the last 16 baseline reaches.
- Lower means more consistent reaches
- Excluded Reachescount
- Reaches missed or ending more than 90 degrees from the target, left out of every score.
- Lower supports interpretation
- Missed Reachescount
- Reaches not finished within 8 seconds of the target appearing.
- Lower supports interpretation
- Slow Movementscount
- Reaches whose movement took longer than 500 ms.
- Lower means faster movements
- Interrupted Reachescount
- Reaches restarted because the pointer left the window or the tab was hidden.
- Lower supports interpretation
Use and evidence
405 papers from 2021 to 2025 name this task in their title or abstract, up 10% compared with 2016 to 2020. That ranks it 63 of 395 test families in our census. See the counts for every test.
Show the numbers
| Year | Papers |
|---|---|
| 2025 | 94 |
| 2024 | 68 |
| 2023 | 92 |
| 2022 | 75 |
| 2021 | 76 |
| 2020 | 92 |
| 2019 | 72 |
| 2018 | 80 |
| 2017 | 70 |
| 2016 | 55 |
| 2015 | 69 |
| 2014 | 55 |
| 2013 | 58 |
| 2012 | 48 |
| 2011 | 49 |
| 2010 | 53 |
| 2009 | 53 |
| 2008 | 31 |
| 2007 | 28 |
| 2006 | 18 |
| 2005 | 14 |
| 2004 | 22 |
| 2003 | 19 |
| 2002 | 16 |
| 2001 | 7 |
| 2000 | 9 |
Use grade B
300 to 999 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
- 38
- 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.
- Reach
- Move a drawn dot from the start circle straight through a target 0.35 of the screen's shorter side away. The usual pointer is hidden.
- Targets
- 8 directions 45 degrees apart (standard) or the 4 diagonals, each once per round in an order drawn from the session's seed.
- Blocks
- 32 baseline reaches with the dot, 96 rotation reaches (standard, 48 to 240), then 16 reaches without the dot.
- Rotation
- 30 degrees (standard, 15 to 90) about the start circle, counterclockwise or clockwise from the session's seed (standard) or fixed.
- Timing
- Hold 500 ms in the start circle; the dot freezes 500 ms at the target distance; movements over 500 ms show Too slow.
- Practice
- 8 reaches with the dot.
- Data
- Every reach's pointer path, hand angle at the target distance, reaction time and movement time.
Krakauer and colleagues (2000) used a digitizing tablet with the arm hidden, and Taylor and colleagues (2014) a 45 degree rotation over 320 reaches. This version follows the online procedure of Tsay and colleagues (2021), with a mouse or trackpad and the hand angle at the target distance. Participants are told only that the dot may not move with their hand, where Tsay and colleagues told them to aim away from the target. The scores support research and do not diagnose.
Quality checks
Each session is marked valid, needs review or invalid, with the reason, before you see its scores.
Scored rows: the scored run's reaches in the baseline, rotation and no-feedback blocks. A reach has no correct answer, so accuracy is not judged against chance. A reach not finished within 8 seconds of the target is missed, and a movement starting under 100 ms after the target is an anticipation, under the platform's timed-test rule. More than 10% of reaches missed or ending more than 90 degrees from the target invalidate, as does a session without baseline or late rotation reaches to score. Five or more interrupted reaches are flagged.
Why these rules
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. Tsay et al. (2021) left out reaches more than 90 degrees from the target and replaced participants who lost more than 10% of their reaches, so that share invalidates here. Adaptation is measured from the participant's own baseline, so it needs baseline reaches and late rotation reaches. A reach starts again with the same target after the pointer leaves the window or the tab is hidden, but five or more interruptions suggest the task was not done in one sitting. A hidden tab stops the reach in progress, so a percentile is withheld after one.
Running this test
Settings you can change
| Setting | Standard | Allowed |
|---|---|---|
| Rotation in degrees | 30 | 15 to 90 |
| Rotation direction | Drawn from the seed (standard) | Drawn from the seed (standard), Counterclockwise, Clockwise |
| Target directions | 8 directions (standard) | 8 directions (standard), 4 diagonal directions |
| Rotation reaches | 96 | 48 to 240 |
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.
Cite and describe
Participants completed the Visuomotor Adaptation Task in a web browser (ConductCognition task version 1.0.0, scoring version 1.0.0; Krakauer, Pine, Ghilardi & Ghez, 2000; Taylor, Krakauer & Ivry, 2014), with the standard settings (rotation in degrees: 30; rotation direction: Drawn from the seed; target directions: 8 directions; rotation reaches: 96). The main score was adaptation (mean hand angle over the last 24 rotation reaches minus the mean over the last 16 baseline reaches, signed so that turning the hand against the rotation is positive).
ConductCognition versions: task version 1.0.0, scoring version 1.0.0. Every export records the versions each session used, for a methods section.
- Krakauer, J. W., Pine, Z. M., Ghilardi, M. F., & Ghez, C. (2000). Learning of visuomotor transformations for vectorial planning of reaching trajectories. Journal of Neuroscience, 20(23), 8916-8924. https://doi.org/10.1523/JNEUROSCI.20-23-08916.2000
- Taylor, J. A., Krakauer, J. W., & Ivry, R. B. (2014). Explicit and implicit contributions to learning in a sensorimotor adaptation task. Journal of Neuroscience, 34(8), 3023-3032. https://doi.org/10.1523/JNEUROSCI.3619-13.2014
- Tsay, J. S., Lee, A. S., Ivry, R. B., & Avraham, G. (2021). Moving outside the lab: The viability of conducting sensorimotor learning studies online. Neurons, Behavior, Data analysis, and Theory, 5(3). https://doi.org/10.51628/001c.26985Online rotation learning with a mouse or trackpad matched results from the lab.
Source papers
- Krakauer JW, Pine ZM, Ghilardi MF, Ghez C (2000). Learning of visuomotor transformations for vectorial planning of reaching trajectories. Journal of Neuroscience, 20(23):8916-8924.Paradigm source, 18-40
- Taylor JA, Krakauer JW, Ivry RB (2014). Explicit and implicit contributions to learning in a sensorimotor adaptation task. Journal of Neuroscience, 34(8):3023-3032.Paradigm source, 18-30
- Tsay JS, Lee AS, Ivry RB, Avraham G (2021). Moving outside the lab: The viability of conducting sensorimotor learning studies online. Neurons, Behavior, Data analysis, and Theory, 5(3).Paradigm source, 19-65
Questions
How long does the Visuomotor Adaptation 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?
Adaptation, Early Adaptation, Aftereffect, Adaptation Share, Reaction Time, Movement Time, Baseline Bias, Baseline Variability, Excluded Reaches, Missed Reaches, Slow Movements and Interrupted Reaches. Each session is also marked valid, needs review or invalid, with the reason.
How widely is the Visuomotor Adaptation Task used in research?
405 papers from 2021 to 2025 name it in their title or abstract, up 10% compared with 2016 to 2020. That ranks it 63 of 395 test families in the ConductCognition test census (use grade B). Source: ConductCognition test census 0.14.0, counted 31 October 2026 from OpenAlex and ClinicalTrials.gov.
How much reliability evidence does the Visuomotor Adaptation Task have?
In the published research, 3 papers report its test-retest reliability and 6 registered clinical studies use it as an outcome (evidence grade C in the ConductCognition test census).
Which settings can a researcher change?
Rotation in degrees (15 to 90), rotation direction (Drawn from the seed (standard), Counterclockwise, Clockwise), target directions (8 directions (standard), 4 diagonal directions) and rotation reaches (48 to 240). 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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