Spot 1-2 hidden digits inside a rapid stream of letters. Tests how fast you can shift attention between targets.
Attentional Blink (Raymond, Shapiro, & Arnell, 1992) demonstrates a temporary "blindness" after detecting a first target - for ~200-500ms, your attention can't see a second one.
Targets appear in a rapid stream of distractors at ~10 items per second. The 2nd target falls in the blink window most of the time.
Training narrows the blink window. Mindfulness training and high arousal both reduce the effect.
It's a robust marker of temporal attention dynamics.
Hundreds of studies have replicated the blink. It's one of the most reliable findings in attention research.
Reduced blink correlates with mindfulness training and meditation experience in published meta-analyses.
Your ability to allocate attention to a second target while the first is still being consolidated.
This task isolates the speed at which attention recovers after it commits to one item. A correct second-target report despite a short gap reflects efficient consolidation of the first target into working memory, freeing resources quickly. Missing it shows your attentional gate stayed closed during the critical lag window, the hallmark of the blink.
Unlike spatial-attention or visual-search tasks, which test where you look, this measures attention across time at a single location, so eye movements cannot help you. The temporal bottleneck it probes resembles real moments when rapid back-to-back events compete, such as catching a second spoken word, road sign, or alert that arrives right behind another.
Push presentation speed gradually and keep your gaze still on the stream's centre.
Start at a slower frame rate where both targets are comfortable, then shorten the per-letter duration only once you reliably catch the second target. Focus your effort on the short-lag trials, where the first and second targets are separated by just a few items, since that window is where the blink lives and where the most improvement is possible.
The common mistake is over-fixating on the first target and mentally dwelling on it, which deepens the blink. Aim instead to identify the first target lightly and immediately release attention back to the stream. Resist blinking or saccading when you spot target one; physical and attentional blinks compound here.
Read your second-target accuracy as a function of how closely it followed the first.
The meaningful number is how often you catch the second target at short lags relative to long lags. A strong profile shows a shallow dip at short lags and full recovery by longer gaps; a pronounced, wide trough means a deeper blink. Track your own short-lag accuracy over sessions rather than comparing a single run to others.
Scores are highly state-dependent: fatigue, caffeine, and a wandering mind all widen the blink on a given day, so one low run is not diagnostic. The metric also says nothing about your sustained focus, memory span, or reaction speed; it captures only this narrow temporal recovery window, not attention in general.