Attention & Processing Speed30–90 secBurden: LowEMA: High

Visual Odd-One-Out

A visual search task where participants tap the one item that differs from the others.

Visual searchSelective attentionProcessing speed
Category
Attention & Processing Speed
Typical duration
30–90 sec
Participant burden
Low
EMA suitability
High

Try this task

Configure parameters and run an interactive preview exactly as participants will experience it. No data is recorded.

Configure preview

Adjust parameters below, then start the preview on the right.

Include practice trials

Shown with feedback before the main task

Task parameters

30–90 secBurden: LowEMA: High

This is a researcher preview. No participant data is recorded.

Simulated participant view

9:41

Visual Odd-One-Out

A visual search task where participants tap the one item that differs from the others.

No data is recorded

Participant experience on smartphone

A small set of symbols appears and the participant taps the different one.

When to use

Useful for extremely brief mobile assessment where minimal instructions and visual interaction are preferred.

When not to use

Less useful if the study needs stronger construct specificity beyond quick visual search.

How to use in a study

Use clearly discriminable target differences and enough spacing between options.

Researcher-configurable parameters

  • Number of boards
  • Grid layout
  • Stimulus family
  • Difficulty level

Outputs collected

  • Correct boards
  • Response time
  • Incorrect taps
  • Misses

Interpretation notes

A strong high-frequency task because burden is very low and the interaction is intuitive.

Scientific evidence

  • Odd-one-out tasks have been used in ecological mobile cognitive testing as short visual search procedures.

Read more

Related tasks

Use in your study

Add this task to your ESM study on SMAAT — free to get started.

Sign up free →