How many can you follow at once?
Each round got harder when you found every target and easier when you missed one. Where it settles is your capacity.
Why the limit is about four
One idea: your visual system has a handful of "pointers" it can stick onto objects, like fingers resting on moving marbles. With a free pointer for every target, tracking is easy. Run out, and targets start slipping away.
Slide the number of targets and watch the pointers run out.
Tracking is everywhere
Any time you follow several moving things without staring at each one, you're doing this game.
Team sport
A midfielder keeps track of teammates and opponents while watching the ball.
Driving
The cars around you (ahead, behind, in the mirrors) are all moving targets.
Watching children
Keeping an eye on several kids in a busy playground is classic tracking.
Air traffic
Controllers follow many aircraft at once, grouping them to stay within limits.
Motion, pointers and attention
Activity in the tracking network rises with every extra target, until it hits its limit. Pick a region.
Zenon Pylyshyn and Ron Storm showed people could follow about four or five identical moving dots at once, more than a single spotlight of attention could explain.
Pylyshyn & Storm, 1988Professional athletes improved on a 3D tracking task faster than amateurs and students across repeated sessions.
Faubert, 2013Keeping track of things in motion
A few dots are marked, then all of them move around identically. Can you keep track of yours? Most people can follow about four at once.
Where you'll notice it in everyday life
More attention games
All 40 games →React where the cue points, unless it lies.
Find the odd item in a crowded field.
Repeat a sequence of taps.
Remember where objects were placed.