Reaction Time: the false start is the real opponent
The whole game is one press. Wait for green, click, read your number in milliseconds. What makes it interesting is that the delay before the signal is random — and that turns a reflex test into a test of patience.
Why you keep false-starting
Waiting for an unpredictable event, the brain starts predicting anyway. After two short delays a third feels overdue, the finger goes early, and the attempt is void. That is not a technical detail, it is the point: the test measures reaction to a signal, not the accuracy of your guess about when the signal will come.
The practical consequence is simple. Do not try to press with the green — press because of the green. Those feel like the same thing and produce numbers a hundred milliseconds apart.
Reading your own numbers
The game keeps three figures: the last result, your personal best and the average across attempts. The best one is the least useful — it usually contains a lucky near-anticipation. The average is the honest metric, and the gap between average and best tells you how stable your attention is.
For reference, most people land between 200 and 300 ms on a visual cue. Under 200 ms is genuinely good. Below 150 ms, suspect an early press that happened to land right.
What changes the result
- Screen position matters. If the colour change happens in your peripheral vision, add tens of milliseconds.
- Fatigue costs more than age. Two hours of sleep debt is easy to see in the average.
- Caffeine helps a little; a warm-up of three or four attempts helps more.
- Sound and movement nearby pull attention. Take the test in a quiet moment or the average lies.
Enough for a session: ten attempts, then look at the average rather than the record.