Identify the direction of the central arrow while surrounding arrows try to distract you.
The flanker task measures your ability to focus on a target while ignoring irrelevant surrounding stimuli.
Congruent trials (all arrows point the same way) are easy. Incongruent trials (flankers disagree with the target) create response conflict.
The difference in reaction time between the two - the flanker effect - is a direct read-out of how efficiently your attentional filter works.
Training can shrink the flanker effect over weeks.
Developed by Eriksen & Eriksen (1974). A staple in attention research, used extensively in ADHD studies.
Smaller flanker effects correlate with higher working memory capacity and better self-regulation in children.
Your ability to lock onto one target and filter out competing, conflicting input.
The core metric is the flanker effect: the slowdown on incongruent trials, where flankers point against the centre, compared with congruent trials. That difference isolates response-conflict resolution, the work of suppressing a competing motor response that the distractors automatically prime. A smaller cost means your attention narrows efficiently onto the target.
Unlike the Stroop task, where conflict arises within a single stimulus dimension, the flanker pits a target against spatially separate distractors, taxing the focusing of a spatial attentional spotlight. Everyday correlates include reading a value off a crowded dashboard, or scanning one line of a dense spreadsheet without being pulled by adjacent rows.
Build the skill of narrowing attention before speeding up.
Start at a comfortable pace where you fixate the central position before the arrows appear, then commit to the centre arrow only. As your accuracy holds above roughly nine in ten, shorten your self-imposed deadline and tolerate denser, closer flankers. Level up when incongruent accuracy stays high, not merely when easy congruent trials feel fast.
The classic mistake is letting your gaze drift outward onto the flankers, which feeds the conflict you are trying to suppress. Anchor your eyes on the centre. Also resist racing: a slightly later, deliberate response on incongruent trials usually beats a fast guess driven by the majority direction of the surrounding arrows.
Read the gap between congruent and incongruent trials, not raw speed alone.
Focus on your flanker effect, the extra time incongruent trials cost you, alongside your error rate on those trials. A shrinking gap across sessions signals more efficient filtering. Raw reaction time tells you little on its own, since a fast but error-prone run often means you sacrificed accuracy for speed rather than truly resolving the conflict.
Treat single scores cautiously. The flanker effect is strongly state-dependent, swinging with fatigue, caffeine, sleep and time of day, so judge your trend over many sessions rather than one. A good score reflects conflict handling under these conditions only; it does not measure memory, reasoning or general intelligence, and it is not an IQ figure.