<p>First off, I'm not an expert, but the oddball paradigm was initially developed for use in event-related potential (ERP) studies (basically EEG measures) (source: <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oddball_paradigm" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Wikipedia</a>). Hence, because of historical reasons, you see this paradigm pop up especially in ERP studies. However, the task has been used in purely psychophysical experiments as well, without EEG or imaging (<em>e.g.</em>, <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3121949/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Stockdale <em>et al</em>. (2011)</a>). </p>

<p><sub><strong>Reference</strong><br>
<strong>-</strong> <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3121949/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Stockdale <em>et al</em>., <em>Vis Res</em> (2011); <strong>51</strong>(11): 1232–8</a></sub> </p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2019-07-05T19:57:57.483Z
Nice reference find; a spent a bit of time like OP looking for a study that didn't also have ERPs without luck.
Bryan Krause
CC BY-SA 4.0
2019-07-06T11:18:52.160Z
@BryanKrause - thanks - admittedly; wikipedia O.o But I checked the reference and by the looks of it it's a genuine one w/o any objective measures of any kind.
AliceD
CC BY-SA 4.0
2019-07-05T19:40:40.137Z
2019-07-05T19:40:40.137Z
AliceD
<p>I'm an undergraduate linguistics student with a strong interest in cognitive psychology of visual attention. Nowadays, I'm studying on an undergraduate research project in which I'm planning to use reaction-time measurement and oddball presentation. However, when I dive into the oddball paradigm literature it seemed to me that it is only used with some other neuro-imaging techniques like EEG, fMRI etc. So I started to wonder if it is inappropriate to use oddball in order to elicit some behavioral data for some reason. Although I've searched for this on Google Scholar or Science Direct, I could not find anything directly related to this. </p>

<p>Is it uncommon / inappropriate / methodologically flawed to use the oddball paradigm only with reaction time? If so, why? </p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2019-07-01T00:04:33.100Z
Whether it's appropriate depends on the research question you are after, but I don't know anything that would make it flawed outright. What have you searched for that you haven't found? Searching *"reaction time" oddball* gives a lot of results that seem relevant to you, though it seems like the reaction time differences are subtle compared to other types of comparisons.
Bryan Krause
CC BY-SA 4.0
2019-07-01T22:04:42.997Z
@BryanKrause I have searched for some studies that use these just as I've described. The results that I've found were almost always --actually, if I'm not mistaken, it was always the case -- indicating that people use it with some other neuro-imaging techniques.
Postmodern Knight
CC BY-SA 4.0
2019-07-01T22:18:01.070Z
I think that's more because it's hard to publish anything with just psychophysics, especially when at least EEG is relatively inexpensive and non-invasive.
Bryan Krause
<cognitive-psychology><methodology><psychophysics><reaction-time>
May somebody use oddball paradigm solely for psychophysical studies?
Postmodern Knight
# May somebody use oddball paradigm solely for psychophysical studies?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2019-06-30)

I'm an undergraduate linguistics student with a strong interest in cognitive psychology of visual attention. Nowadays, I'm studying on an undergraduate research project in which I'm planning to use reaction-time measurement and oddball presentation. However, when I dive into the oddball paradigm literature it seemed to me that it is only used with some other neuro-imaging techniques like EEG, fMRI etc. So I started to wonder if it is inappropriate to use oddball in order to elicit some behavioral data for some reason. Although I've searched for this on Google Scholar or Science Direct, I could not find anything directly related to this.

Is it uncommon / inappropriate / methodologically flawed to use the oddball paradigm only with reaction time? If so, why?

**Tags:** cognitive-psychology, methodology, psychophysics, reaction-time

> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: Whether it's appropriate depends on the research question you are after, but I don't know anything that would make it flawed outright. What have you searched for that you haven't found? Searching *"reaction time" oddball* gives a lot of results that seem relevant to you, though it seems like the reaction time differences are subtle compared to other types of comparisons.  
> **username_0**: @BryanKrause I have searched for some studies that use these just as I've described. The results that I've found were almost always --actually, if I'm not mistaken, it was always the case -- indicating that people use it with some other neuro-imaging techniques.  
> **username_1**: I think that's more because it's hard to publish anything with just psychophysics, especially when at least EEG is relatively inexpensive and non-invasive.  

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## 1 answers

### Answer by username_2 on 2019-07-05. Score: 1 | Accepted answer

First off, I'm not an expert, but the oddball paradigm was initially developed for use in event-related potential (ERP) studies (basically EEG measures) (source: [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oddball_paradigm)). Hence, because of historical reasons, you see this paradigm pop up especially in ERP studies. However, the task has been used in purely psychophysical experiments as well, without EEG or imaging (*e.g.*, [Stockdale *et al*. (2011)](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3121949/)).

**Reference**  
**-** [Stockdale *et al*., *Vis Res* (2011); **51**(11): 1232–8](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3121949/)

> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: Nice reference find; a spent a bit of time like OP looking for a study that didn't also have ERPs without luck.  
> **username_2**: @BryanKrause - thanks - admittedly; wikipedia O.o But I checked the reference and by the looks of it it's a genuine one w/o any objective measures of any kind.  

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