Being fast is not enough here. Tap the green ● as quickly as you can, but on the red ✕ you must not press. Signals get shorter as you go, and three mistakes end the run. It is the Go/No-Go task used in cognitive science to measure impulse control.
The opposite of a reaction test
In a reaction time test, faster is always better. Here a fast hand is the trap. One signal in four says "do not press", and the quicker things get, the more your hand is already moving. Stopping that movement halfway is inhibition, and it varies between people far more than raw reaction speed. Fast hands with poor control stall around 20; an average reactor who holds well goes past 50.
How to play
- Press START to open the signal panel.
- When the green ● (Tap!) appears, tap or press Space before it disappears.
- When the red ✕ (Hold!) appears, do nothing. Let it vanish and you have cleared it.
- Pressing during the blank gap between signals is also a mistake — mashing ends the run immediately.
- Three mistakes and you reach the result screen. Your score is the number of signals cleared.
It speeds up
The first signal is shown for 1.1 seconds, and every signal after that is 3% shorter, down to a floor of 0.38 seconds. By signal twenty you are at about 0.6 s; by forty you are at the floor. Short signals make two things hard at once: the green ones are easy to miss, and a hurried hand fires on the red ones.
| 70 or more | Total self-control — you are sorting signals at the floor speed |
|---|---|
| 55–69 | Top-tier inhibition |
| 40–54 | Holds back well |
| 28–39 | Above average |
| 16–27 | Average |
| 15 or fewer | Hands moving ahead of the decision — rest and try again |
Tips
- Hold your finger a centimetre off the screen. Resting it on the glass makes the red signals fire themselves. A task with holding in it needs a different posture from a pure reaction test.
- Read the shape, not the colour. Colour alone gets confusing at speed; the difference between ● and ✕ registers faster.
- Be careful right after a mistake. People tend to overcompensate and rush after a failed stop. Take one beat before the next signal.
Scoring and the leaderboard
Your score is the number of signals cleared, higher is better. A successful tap and a successful hold each count as one, and the result screen breaks them down along with your average reaction time. Five or more can be posted. The leaderboard keeps one row per signed-in account.
Frequently asked questions
How often does the red signal come up?
About one in four, drawn fresh each time, so the order is unpredictable. The one rule is that the same signal never appears more than three times in a row.
Is missing a green the same mistake as pressing a red?
Both cost one mistake here. Research treats them differently though — a miss is attention, a false press is inhibition. The breakdown on the result screen shows which side is your weakness.
Is this an ADHD test?
No. The Go/No-Go task is used in research and clinics, but this version is for fun and cannot diagnose anything. It swings widely with sleep, mood and display latency.
Related tests
- Stroop Test — suppressing the word to name the colour
- F1 Start Reaction Test — holding and releasing at once
- N-back Test — the working-memory side
- Reaction Time Test — pure speed