A task in which participants view stimuli (typically arrows) presented one at a time and to which they must make a simple lexical response. These stimuli are surrounded by either distracting or facilitating items. Distracting items are typically associated with an opposite response ("incongruent" = pointing in opposite direction to target stimulus), whereas facilitating items are typically associated with the same response as the target stimulus ("congruent" = pointing in the same direction as the target stimulus).
Synonyms: flanker task Definition contributed by RPoldrack about four months ago.