Simon Task - Cognitive Conflict Research Kit

The Simon task and effect, first identified by J. R. Simon and his colleague in 1963, demonstrate that people react more swiftly and accurately when the characteristics of a stimulus and its response align, such as both occurring on the same side of the body. This phenomenon is part of the broader category of stimulus-response compatibility effects. It is similar to the Stroop effect in highlighting the challenges experienced during a mismatch between a stimulus and its response, which is easily noticeable.

Simon Task - Cognitive Conflict Research Kit gives you a single, well-organized component (SimonTask.cs) that runs the entire experiment: fixation, stimulus presentation, response collection, feedback, breaks, and a results screen - fully driven by Inspector settings.

Highly customizable, all through the Inspector:

• Choose the stimulus modality: Word, Color, Shape, Image, or Audio
• Define any number of response categories - each with its own key, color, word, sprite, or audio clip, and its own on-screen "home" position
• Control the exact mix of congruent / incongruent / neutral trials
• Fine-tune every timing value: fixation, stimulus duration, response window, inter-trial interval (with optional jitter), block pauses
• Choose feedback behavior: immediate, end-of-block, or none - and whether feedback shows as text, stimulus recoloring, or both
• Fully rewritable on-screen instructions and feedback texts

Suited for:

• Cognitive psychology research and teaching demonstrations
• Reaction-time / cognitive-conflict studies and screening tools
• VR-based cognitive assessment (optional SteamVR integration)
• Any project needing a validated, well-documented reaction-time paradigm as a building block

Included out of the box:

• 7 ready-to-use example scenes and prefabs (one per stimulus modality, plus a neutral-baseline and an advanced 3-choice variant)
• License-free example graphics and audio - safe for commercial projects
• Automated EditMode/PlayMode tests covering the core trial and statistics logic
• Full written documentation covering every Inspector setting

Supported VR Device Types via SteamVR:

• Vive
• Oculus

Because all creation and editing functionalities are accessible through the Unity Editor, no coding is required to create and run a custom questionnaire in a scene.

For further reading, see:

Simon, J.R. and Wolf, J.D. (1963). Choice reaction times as a function of angular stimulus-response correspondence and age. Ergonomics, 6, 99-105.

Hommel, B. (1993). Inverting the Simon effect by intention: Determinants of direction and extent of effects of irrelevant spatial information. Psychological Research, 55, 270-279.

Prinz, W. & Hommel, B. (2002). Common mechanisms in perception and action: Attention and Performance, Vol. XIX. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

We are always interested in scientific collaborations. Please reach out to [email protected]