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Can you improve attention?
Yes, on the trained tasks.Scores on the games themselves rise quickly with practice. Gains on close variants are common; gains on unrelated, everyday tasks are much smaller and less consistent.
What is attention training?
Attention training is practice on tasks that make you select a target, ignore distractors, stop automatic responses or switch rules,such as Stroop, flanker, go/no-go and task switching. Each game isolates one part of attention.
- Games
- 16
- Session
- 5–15 minutes
- Frequency
- 3–5× a week
- Levels
- Easy → hard, adaptive
- Cost
- Free, no account
SESSION BUILDER
How long have you got?
Intensity
Easy and medium games, ordered warm-up to finisher.Every attention game
16 games · 53 min if you play them all01Easy2 minLetter CancellationCross out every target letter in 60 seconds.
ANATOMY OF THE SKILL
The filter in front of thinking
Attention decides what gets processed at all. It has several parts: choosing a target, resisting distractors, stopping an automatic response and switching between rules. Each game here leans on a different one.
A week that works
Tap a day to switch it on or off · 45 min a week3–5×sessions a weekShort and frequent beats long and rare.
10–15minutes a sessionStop while you're still sharp.
4 in 5level-up ruleMove up once you score four in five.
6 wkbefore judgingGive it six weeks before deciding.
OUTSIDE THE GAME
Where you use attention every day
Three everyday moments that lean on this skill, and the game that practises the same move.
THE MOMENTA cyclist moves between parked cars, and you spot them among everything else on the street.
PRACTISE IT WITHVisual SearchTHE MOMENTA colleague's call happens right next to you, and you keep reading your own screen.
PRACTISE IT WITHFlankerTHE MOMENTYour phone buzzes mid-task and you leave it until you've finished.
PRACTISE IT WITHGo / No-GoAttention training, explained
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How long does it take to see results?
Usually two to three weeks on the games, six weeks to judge.Most people improve fastest in the first few sessions as they learn the task, then more slowly. Give it about six weeks of regular practice before deciding whether it's helping you.
3
How often should you train attention?
Three to five short sessions a week.Ten to fifteen focused minutes beats an occasional hour. Spread sessions out, stop while you're still sharp, and move up a level once you score four in five.
4
Does attention training raise IQ?
Probably not by much.Large reviews find little evidence that brain-training games raise general intelligence. Expect better performance on what you practise, and use the IQ test to measure your starting point honestly.
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How do you measure your attention?
Track your levels here and take a test for a benchmark.Your training stats show the level you reach in each game over time. For a standardised reading, the full IQ test scores four domains against other takers.
Sources
Research behind this page. Our methodology- Posner, M. I., & Petersen, S. E. (1990). The attention system of the human brain. Annual Review of Neuroscience, 13, 25–42.
- Diamond, A. (2013). Executive functions. Annual Review of Psychology, 64, 135–168.
- Simons, D. J., et al. (2016). Do "brain-training" programs work? Psychological Science in the Public Interest, 17(3), 103–186.