PEBL Hub — IRB Fact Sheet — 2026-08-23
Go/No-Go Task
Category:Attention
Duration:~7 minutes
Parameters:9 configurable parameters available
Version:1.0
Input:Mouse
Description
A continuous performance task measuring sustained attention and response inhibition. Participants respond to frequent target stimuli (Go trials) while withholding responses to rare non-target stimuli (No-Go trials).
Participants monitor a stream of stimuli (typically letters P and R) and respond quickly to one target stimulus while inhibiting responses to the other. The task includes practice trials followed by test blocks with varying target frequencies (frequent vs. rare) to assess response inhibition under different conditions.
Notes
- Practice trials (block='practice') should be removed from analysis.
- Rows with responded=0 indicate timeouts and should be excluded from RT analysis.
- Block 1 (frequent target) vs. Block 3 (rare target) allow comparison of response inhibition under different prepotency conditions.
Key Parameters
| reps | Number of repetitions of P/R design (with trials shuffled) in each block (default: 32) |
| isi | Time between stimuli (default: 1500) |
| pstim | The 'P' stimulus character (default: P) |
| rstim | the 'R' stimulus character (default: R) |
| numTarg | Number of 'p' trials per block (default: 4) |
| numFoil | Number of 'R' trials per block (default: 1) |
| responsemode | Response mode: spacebar (keyboard), leftclick (mouse), touchscreen (touch), clicktarget (click target box), userselect (custom key) (default: spacebar) |
| usemouse | DEPRECATED: Whether the mouse should be used instead of shift key. (default: 1) |
| color | the color of star to use. (default: blue) |
| useBJPD | Whether the Bezdein original design should be used (80% targets on both blocks) (default: 1) |
Example Data Output (5 sample rows)
| subnum | test | block | type | correctresponse | trial | choice | x | y | stim | present | response | responded | starttime | rt |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | gonogo | 0 | practice | P | 1 | 3 | 583 | 484 | P | 1 | NONE | 0 | 11128 | 1451 |
| 1 | gonogo | 0 | practice | P | 2 | 2 | 783 | 284 | P | 1 | NONE | 0 | 13597 | 1451 |
| 1 | gonogo | 0 | practice | P | 3 | 1 | 583 | 284 | P | 1 | <rshift> | 1 | 16065 | 565 |
| 1 | gonogo | 0 | practice | P | 4 | 2 | 783 | 284 | P | 1 | <rshift> | 1 | 16637 | 685 |
| 1 | gonogo | 0 | practice | P | 5 | 4 | 783 | 484 | P | 1 | <rshift> | 1 | 17329 | 566 |
References
Bezdjian, S., Baker, L. A., Lozano, D. I., & Raine, A. (2009). Assessing inattention and impulsivity in children during the Go/NoGo task. British Journal of Developmental Psychology, 27(2), 365-383. doi: 10.1348/026151008X314919