Flanker · Selective Attention
A row of five arrows appears. Tap (or use the arrow keys for) the direction the MIDDLE arrow points, ignoring the four arrows around it. Sometimes they agree with the centre; sometimes they fight it. Score as many as you can in 45 seconds — wrong answers cost a point.
How to play Flanker
A row of five arrows appears. Tap (or use the arrow keys for) the direction the MIDDLE arrow points, ignoring the four arrows around it. Sometimes they agree with the centre; sometimes they fight it. Score as many as you can in 45 seconds — wrong answers cost a point.
What it measures
The flanker task, introduced by Eriksen & Eriksen in 1974, measures selective attention and response inhibition: your ability to focus on relevant information while suppressing distracting, conflicting cues. The slow-down on incompatible trials is the 'flanker effect'.
Honest note: This trains how well you resist distraction in this specific task. It's a clean window into focus under interference — not an IQ score or a treatment for ADHD.
What's a good score?
Most players score 25–40 in 45 seconds; high accuracy at speed is the goal. The percentile we show is an estimate based on typical distributions, not a clinical norm.
FAQ
What's the flanker effect?
You're slower and less accurate when the surrounding arrows point the opposite way to the middle one — the cost of overriding a conflicting cue.
Can I use the keyboard?
Yes — the left and right arrow keys map to the two answers.
Keep training
The Eriksen flanker task measures selective attention and inhibition — lock onto the middle arrow and ignore the crowd around it. It’s a benchmark task for the brain’s conflict-monitoring system and a staple of attention research.
Who benefits most — no medical claims, just where the research points
Filtering out distractors is exactly what ‘focus’ feels like in a noisy world.
Ignoring irrelevant cues while acting on the right one is core to fast, accurate play.
Inhibition tasks appear in cognitive-rehab programmes that have shown attention gains.