Occlusion and attention tasks are research methods used to measure how people process visual information, make decisions, and allocate their attention over time. In simple terms, they help researchers understand where users focus, what they notice (or miss), and how they respond to stimuli under different conditions.

Understanding Occlusion Tasks

Occlusion tasks involve temporarily hiding or revealing parts of a visual stimulus in timed intervals. For example, a researcher might show a webpage layout with certain elements obscured and measure how quickly users can still complete a task. This helps evaluate which information is most critical to the user, whether a design guides them effectively, and how quickly they can interpret content.

These tasks are especially useful in UX testing and visual experiments, where subtle layout changes might impact how quickly users find what they need. Occlusion testing allows researchers to ask: What happens when key visuals, CTAs, or product information are momentarily hidden? Do users still complete the task? What information do they rely on most?

Understanding Attention Tasks

Attention tasks focus on tracking where users direct their attention and for how long. These can include:

• Reacting to a visual stimulus within a time window
• Spotting differences between two images
• Responding to a signal among distractions (visual search)

By designing attention tasks, researchers can assess how focused users remain, how effectively they process content under cognitive load, and what captures their interest – or causes confusion.

The Power of Timing-Based Studies

Both occlusion and attention tasks typically rely on precise timing. This means careful setup is needed to control how long visuals are shown, how fast participants must respond, and what types of interruptions are included. These factors can influence the outcomes of cognitive research significantly, especially when exploring behavioral decision-making or digital usability.

Examples in Research (Fictional)

Let’s say a fictional skincare brand wants to test which portion of their homepage drives more product clicks. Using an occlusion task, a UX researcher hides the product image for half the participants. Surprisingly, the copy drives nearly equal conversions – revealing copy clarity plays a bigger role than expected.

Or a behavioral scientist at a financial platform runs an attention task where users must detect changes in interest rates displayed in different formats. Results show attention quickly drops when data is shown in dense tables versus simplified graphics – offering practical direction for interface redesign.

These examples illustrate how occlusion tasks and attention tasks reveal behavior that users may not be able to articulate directly, but is essential for creating better user experiences and more targeted messaging.

Over the past few years, Prolific has become a go-to platform for designing and launching behavioral and cognitive studies involving real people. For researchers running UX testing, attention tasks, or visual experiments, it offers a flexible and cost-effective way to gather data at scale – often in just days. But what makes Prolific especially well-suited for these kinds of testing scenarios?

User-Friendly Platform with Scientific Roots

Originally built by behavioral scientists, the Prolific platform is designed with research rigor in mind. It integrates easily with tools like Gorilla, Qualtrics, Pavlovia, or custom JavaScript-based tasks, making it ideal for deploying timing-based studies or cognitive testing with tight experimental controls.

It’s especially useful when precision is critical – such as tracking response times, controlling visual display intervals, or setting randomized rotation of visual elements. For researchers designing visual occlusion or reaction time tests, these capabilities are essential.

Pre-Screened, Diverse Participant Pool

A major advantage of Prolific is access to a high-quality, pre-screened panel of global participants. Teams can apply detailed filters (demographics, behaviors, previous experience) to reach the audiences most relevant to their product or research questions. That means your user behavior studies can be more targeted – and your findings more representative.

Why Insights Teams Choose Prolific

More market research and insights teams are using Prolific as part of their broader DIY market research toolkits. It allows quick iteration, while reducing the build times often associated with traditional full-service studies. That can be a game-changer when you need to test multiple design concepts or messaging variations in a short period.

Keeping Quality High with the Right Support

Despite its ease of use, designing a strong Prolific experiment – especially one involving attention control or occlusion – still requires expertise in cognitive research methods, visual UX principles, and behavioral study setups. And that's where the real opportunity lies.

Rather than hiring full-time, many teams are turning to On Demand Talent – experienced consumer insights professionals who understand both the Prolific platform and how to ensure studies are well-structured and actionable. These experts help teams:

• Translate business questions into experiment-ready tasks
• Build timing, stimulus control, and logic into experimental designs
• Avoid common bias or execution errors in cognitive testing

By bringing in fractional experts when needed, research leaders gain both speed and confidence that their studies will yield meaningful, scalable results – without compromising quality or overburdening internal teams.

Whether you're a startup exploring digital behavior or a Fortune 500 company refining your ad targeting, designing visual attention experiments online with Prolific offers an efficient way to test, learn, and improve. Just make sure the right research rigor is in place to make every second of user attention count.

Prolific has become a go-to platform for researchers and UX professionals designing attention and occlusion tasks thanks to its speed, reliable participant pool, and ease of use. Whether you're conducting a visual attention study or testing timed stimuli, setting up your research correctly ensures you get data you can trust.

1. Define your research objective

Start by clarifying what behavior or response you're trying to measure. Are you testing users' ability to notice a brand element? Or gauging reaction time to a visual cue? Clear goals lay the foundation for effective Prolific experiment design.

2. Choose the right task type

On the Prolific platform, you can link to external tools like Gorilla, Pavlovia, or jsPsych via custom links. These are ideal for building cognitive tasks involving timed stimuli or visual occlusion, where elements are hidden or revealed with precision timing. Each tool allows fine control over stimulus presentation, ideal for occlusion tasks or attention measurements.

3. Create the task using the right third-party tool

In your chosen tool, design the sequence of screens. Depending on the cognitive test type, this might involve:

• Progressive image reveals (for occlusion tasks)
• Timed stimuli shown for milliseconds (for attention tasks)
• Interrupt-driven tasks to simulate real-world UX environments

Ensure each stage is logically structured and tests a single, measurable stimulus-response event.

4. Pilot test with a small group

Before launching to a larger sample, run a small internal test or a Prolific pilot (5–10 users). This can uncover confusing instructions, technical issues, or timing glitches. Preview the participant-facing experience to ensure seamless flow and accurate response recording.

5. Set key Prolific parameters

Use Prolific's filters to define your sample by age, location, experience with online tests, or even attention span (using prescreening questions). Keep your study title and description clear to attract relevant participants for attention task testing.

6. Add attention checks

To improve data quality, include built-in attention checks or simple logic checks (e.g., “Select the color blue to continue”). These help weed out inattentive participants without disrupting natural task progression.

7. Launch and monitor

Go live and monitor response quality. Prolific provides real-time updates on completion and allows for easy replacement if participants fail screening. Data can be exported or piped into your analytics tool for deeper interpretation.

By following these steps, you can reliably run UX testing, cognitive research, or visual experiments on the Prolific platform with confidence. Whether you need occlusion task examples for UX research or you're designing timed stimulus testing on Prolific, structure and pre-testing are key to success.

Occlusion and attention tasks are powerful tools used beyond academic research – they can directly impact product development, digital experience design, and brand marketing strategies. Whether through DIY market research or paired with professional support, cognitive testing offers deep insights into real-world behavior.

Testing visual hierarchy in UI design

Imagine you're launching a new e-commerce site. An occlusion task can help determine which elements users see first – the product image, price, or discount badge. By strategically hiding parts of the visual layout and tracking eye movements or attention recall, UX researchers can refine interface designs to improve discoverability and conversions.

Understanding shopper behavior

In consumer packaged goods (CPG), attention tasks can reveal how shelf placement or packaging changes affect noticeability. For example, a fictional beverage brand could run timed stimulus tests on Prolific to compare different label designs. The insights help inform design iterations that maximize shelf impact.

Measuring ad performance

Marketers often turn to visual attention experiments to see how quickly and effectively an ad grabs attention. A timed exposure task can simulate scrolling behavior to evaluate which creative elements are most memorable or emotionally engaging within two seconds – the time users typically spend on a web ad.

Concept testing with cognitive tasks

Whether you're refining messaging or evaluating new concepts, timed recall or forced attention-response tasks can surface which themes resonate best. Instead of just asking participants what they “like,” behavioral data provides a deeper layer of truth – what they noticed and remembered.

Supporting agile product cycles

Teams adopting agile methods can use the Prolific platform for quick-turn testing between sprints. Visual cognitive tasks offer lightweight, modular ways to gather directional insight without the need for long-form surveys.

These examples (fictional, but reflective of real scenarios) show just a few ways that professionals use tools like Prolific to run behavioral studies, apply occlusion task methods, and build more human-centered, evidence-based solutions. Across industries – from tech to retail to healthcare – attention and occlusion testing are unlocking new forms of decision support that complement traditional UX and market research techniques.

While Prolific and similar platforms make cognitive and behavioral research more accessible, the quality of your outcomes depends heavily on design – and that's where experienced talent becomes invaluable. On Demand Talent from SIVO brings deep expertise in consumer behavior, UX testing, and cognitive research design to your internal team, without long-term commitments.

Maximize your investment in DIY tools

DIY market research tools like Prolific offer speed and cost-efficiency. But without the right setup, tasks can suffer from poor user flow, ambiguous stimuli, or flawed timing logic. On Demand professionals ensure that your occlusion task or attention task is structured correctly – from stimulus design and task timing to validation and interpretation.

Reduce error and bias through intelligent design

Attention-focused studies are especially vulnerable to errors if the task lacks visual control or cognitive alignment. An experienced On Demand practitioner can help translate your business questions into technically sound protocols, build high-quality occlusion tests with real behavioral logic, and prevent costly misinterpretations.

Build team capabilities at the same time

Unlike freelance marketplaces or one-off consultants, On Demand Talent from SIVO actively supports your team’s learning curve. As fractional team members, they don’t just “do” the work – they guide, mentor, and upskill your team by modeling best practices in platforms like Prolific and adjacent tools (e.g., Gorilla or Lab.js).

Flexible support across roles and industries

Whether you need a user experience researcher, a cognitive psychologist, or a behavioral insights analyst, our network gives you access to hundreds of seasoned professionals across roles and sectors. From short-term knowledge gaps to ongoing support, On Demand Talent integrates fast and gets to work – with many projects kicking off in just days.

A better alternative to freelancers

Unlike freelancers who may operate with less oversight or limited context, SIVO’s On Demand Talent are vetted, professional researchers who integrate directly with your team. They prioritize knowledge transfer and strategic alignment over just task completion.

In the fast-moving world of Prolific experiment design, having a trusted expert by your side can be the difference between noise and knowledge. Whether you're refining UX layouts, mapping shopper attention, or exploring deeper behavioral patterns, On Demand support bridges the gap between DIY speed and human-centric accuracy.