What is the effect of irrelevant information on reaction speed?

The Flanker Task measures people’s ability to suppress information that is irrelevant in a particular context, in this case stimuli that “flank” a target stimulus. The challenge is to focus on a target stimulus while ignoring the adjacent flanker stimuli. This cognitive task recruits frontal areas of the brain that are responsible for cognitive control (also known as executive function). Various factors such as alcohol use and lack of sleep can impair an individual’s performance on a Flanker task. Exercise, in turn, has been shown to improve performance.

Resources:

Davrance, K., Hall, B., McMorris, T. (2009). Effect of acute exercise on cognitive control required during an Eriksen flanker task. Journal of Sport & Exercise Psychology. 31 (5): 628–639. https://doi.org/10.1123/jsep.31.5.628 https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03203267

Isbister, K. (2017). Fidget toys aren’t just hype. https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/fidget-toys-arent-just-hype/

Parameters
The following features can be tweaked (default values in parentheses):

• Task instructions
• Number of trials (36)
• Duration of feedback screen (500 ms)
• Whether trials should be randomized (yes)
  Note: trials are balanced across conditions (congruent/incongruent/neutral)

What data is collected? How is it scored?
The following variables are recorded:

• FT_congruent_proportion_correct_responses
• FT_incongruent_proportion_correct_responses
• FT_neutral_proportion_correct_responses
• FT_congruent_mean_reaction_time
• FT_incongruent_mean_reaction_time
• FT_neutral_mean_reaction_time

The two main variables are the percentage of correct responses and the reaction time. These are calculated for all three conditions (congruent, incongruent, neutral)