Essay
The Flanker task (based on Eriksen and Eriksen, 1974): main body.
- Institution
- De Montfort University (DMU)
A 2000 word write up on the Flanker task in the format of research report minus the title page, abstract and appendices.
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PSYC2092 COGNITIVE ASSIGNMENTIntroduction
The flanker task is a task derived from experiments conducted by Eriksen & Eriksen
(1974) that involves the identification of a single item when surrounded by use congruent and
incongruent stimuli. In the original Eriksen & Eriksen (1974) study letters where the used stimuli,
the surrounding letters were labelled as noise letters with these either being response
compatible or incompatible. From the series of experiments that took place it was found that that
the incompatible noise letters hindered the reaction time of the participant when compared to
the compatible noise letters, they also found that the spacing between the shown letters
affected the reaction times too with larger spacing resulting in faster reaction times. There has
been follow up studies since the original Eriksen & Eriksen study, one of these follow ups was
conducted by Sanders & Lamer (2002). In this study the flanker effect was revisited with 4
different experiments investigating the different possible variables that could be at play such as
distance from the screen the experiment is taking place on. This study provides further evidence
that supports the claims of the flanker effect taking place on perception. However, despite
finding sufficient psychological evidence for the effect, they only focus on the reaction times of
the participants and not the answers given. Further investigation on this factor may highlight
possible inconsistencies within the theory and cause a change in the idea.
A study did investigate this aspect along with a comparison with another task. Stine et al
(2008) looked at the flanker task and the spatial task. In their study a comparison was made
, PSYC2092 COGNITIVE ASSIGNMENT
between the two tasks with how participants performed but they looked at the percentage of
correct answers as well as the usual recording of the reaction times. Their findings on reaction
times showed what had been seen before with the flanker task but their look into the correct
answers was able to show that participants were able to complete the flanker task with near
perfect accuracy when the stimuli was congruent. When it came to the incongruent responses it
was seen that the participants were noticeably more prone to provide an incorrect response as
well as it is taking longer to provide such response. This study fills a gap in knowledge, but more
research would need to be done to concretely say that incongruence leads to more incorrect
responses. Which this study conducted here aims to address.
For this experiment it was hypothesized that there would be a significant difference in
the reaction times between the congruent and incongruent responses with the congruent
response time being faster than the incongruent response time. Another hypothesis is that there
will be an increase in incorrect answers given in the task in response to the incongruent stimuli.
Method
Design –
The conducted study took the form of a lab experiment requiring the completion of a
task. This task recorded the reaction times of participant doing the task, this was the dependent
variable. The independent variable was whether the stimuli was congruent or incongruent.
Materials –
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