The experiments shared below represent some of the core paradigms we have used in our research. They can be downloaded for personal use by clicking on their respective file icons. The programs were built in E-Prime 2 Professional. If you use one of these experimental programs, please give credit by citing the paper mentioned in its description. A schematic depiction of each experiment can be viewed by clicking on its image icon.
Attentional blink & temporal integration
This is a rapid serial visual presentation task, in which two targets that are to be identified appear in a stream of distractor letters. Tasks such as this are typically used to elicit the attentional blink phenomenon, which occurs when the targets appear quickly after another, within about half a second. This version is special because it also allows a measure of temporal integration: The targets consist of corner segments, which are presented without mutual overlap. Temporally integrated target reports can thus be dissociated from other kinds of reports. Integration mainly occurs when the targets appear in direct succession.
The task is similar to Experiment 1 from Akyürek, E. G., Eshuis, S. A. H., Nieuwenstein, M. R., Saija, J. D., Başkent, D., & Hommel, B. (2012). Temporal target integration underlies performance at Lag 1 in the attentional blink. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 38, 1448-1464. doi: 10.1037/a0027610.
Missing element task
This is a task that directly measures temporal integration, in which two sequential stimulus displays are very rapidly presented. Across a total of 25 (5 by 5) positions within a stimulus grid, 24 are filled with small black squares; each of the two displays contains 12. The observers are asked to identify the one location that remains empty. Doing so successfully depends heavily on being able to perceptually integrate the two successive displays, which typically requires very short stimulus durations.
This EEG-ready program sends triggers over the parallel port and is based on the original implementation in Experiment 4 from Akyürek, E. G., Schubö, A., & Hommel, B. (2010). Fast temporal event integration in the visual domain demonstrated by event-related potentials. Psychophysiology, 47, 512-522. doi: 10.1111/j.1469-8986.2010.00962.x.
Visual search
This is a lateralized spatial attention task, in which the presence or absence of a target has to be indicated by the observers. The task is designed to measure the efficiency of attentional allocation across the search array, in terms of response accuracy and reaction time. In target-present trials, a second salient nontarget also always appears in the search array, either defined in the target feature dimension (color), or in another (line orientation). In target-absent trials, two nontargets appear. Performance typically suffers when nontargets appear with features defined in the same dimension as the targets.
Although its conditions are different, the task is based on the experiment from Akyürek, E. G., & Schubö, A. (2011). The allocation of attention in displays with simultaneously presented singletons. Biological Psychology, 87, 218-225. doi: 10.1016/j.biopsycho.2011.02.022.