What is the flanker test?
In the flanker test you see a row of five arrows and answer which way the middle arrow points, ignoring the four around it, called the flankers. Sometimes the flankers point the same way as the middle arrow, and sometimes the opposite way. When they disagree, people answer more slowly and make more mistakes. That slowdown is the flanker effect.
What does the flanker task measure?
The flanker task measures how well you can attend to one item while ignoring distractions right next to it, often called selective attention or inhibitory control. Your flanker effect, the extra time you need when the outer arrows disagree with the middle one, shows how much the neighbors pulled on your answer.
How this test works
There are 32 rows. In half of them all five arrows agree, like ← ← ← ← ←, and in the other half the middle one points against the rest, like → → ← → →. The middle arrow points left and right equally often, in random order, and never the same way more than three times in a row. Answer with ← or → on the keyboard (F and J work too), or tap the Left and Right buttons. Between rows a small cross holds the center for 0.6 to 1 seconds.
How is your result calculated?
Each row is timed from the animation frame that draws it to the moment your key or finger goes down, using the timestamp your browser gives the press. Your main result is the average time of your correct answers; wrong answers are counted separately, in your score out of 32.
Your own flanker effect is the average correct time when the flankers disagreed, minus the average when they agreed. It is calculated from your run only and shows how much the arrows you were told to ignore got in your way.
Why do the other arrows get in the way?
Because attention can't be narrowed to one arrow instantly. The flankers sit right next to the target, so they are seen and understood at the same time, and when they point the other way they start preparing the wrong answer. That response has to be overruled, which costs time and sometimes fails.
The task was introduced by Barbara and Charles Eriksen in 1974, in the journal Perception & Psychophysics, with letters rather than arrows: people had to identify a central letter surrounded by other letters. The arrow version is the one most often used today.
Flanker test vs Stroop test
Both measure how well you ignore something that pulls you toward the wrong answer, but the pull comes from different places:
| Flanker test | Stroop test | |
|---|---|---|
| You answer | Which way the middle arrow points | The color of the ink |
| What gets in the way | The arrows beside it | What the word says |
| Why it interferes | Neighbors are seen together with the target | Reading a familiar word is automatic |
| Your extra score | Flanker effect, in ms | Stroop effect, in ms |
What can change your result
- Keyboard or touch. Fingers resting on the arrow keys need no aiming; on a phone your thumb has to reach the right button.
- Where you look. Keeping your eyes on the center cross between rows means the middle arrow appears where you are already looking.
- Speed against care. Rushing raises mistakes on the disagreeing rows first.
- Device delays. Screen refresh and input lag add a little to every answer.
What this test does not measure
It measures how quickly and accurately you answered 32 rows on your device, in one sitting. Flanker tasks are used in research, but this isn't an assessment of attention or a test for any condition, and results from different devices aren't directly comparable. For a test where words get in the way instead of arrows, try the Stroop Test; to practise holding back, the Go/No-Go Test.