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Visual Search Test
Find the one red circle hidden among green circles, then among red squares and green circles. Ten rounds measure your hits, wrong taps and reaction time for both feature search and conjunction search — and how much slower you get when the edge the target shares blends into the crowd.
Press Start, then tap the red circle.
About the Visual Search Test
In a feature search the target stands out through a single feature — here, colour — so it pops out almost instantly no matter how many distractors surround it. In a conjunction search the target shares one feature with each kind of distractor, so your eyes must scan item by item and every extra distractor adds time. That growing cost per item is called the search slope, and it is slower for everyone.
Each of the ten rounds shows one red circle. In half of them the distractors are green circles; in the other half they are red squares and green circles. Once you tap the target or time runs out, the next round begins automatically.
About
The Visual Search Test measures how quickly and accurately you can locate a single target — a red circle — among distractors. In the first phase the target hides among green circles, forcing you to filter by color. In the second phase the target hides among red squares, forcing you to filter by shape while ignoring the matching color. The task isolates two core attention processes: feature search, where a unique color pops out automatically, and conjunction search, where you must combine color and shape to find the target.
How your result is scored
Each phase records your reaction time for every trial and flags any misses or false clicks. The final report shows your median reaction time for the color-only block and the conjunction block, plus an accuracy percentage for each. A larger gap between the two medians suggests conjunction search is more demanding for you, while similar times indicate efficient feature integration.
Tips to improve
- Scan systematically from one corner instead of jumping randomly.
- Keep your eyes relaxed; tense scanning slows detection.
- Practice a few warm-up trials to settle into the rhythm.
- Minimize screen glare and sit at a comfortable viewing distance.
- Take short breaks between blocks to reset attention.
Related
Frequently asked questions
- What does a slower conjunction-search time mean?
- It means your brain needs extra processing to bind color and shape together, which is normal and varies with fatigue or practice.
- Can I retake the test to improve my score?
- Yes, repeated sessions often reduce the reaction-time gap as search strategies become more automatic.
- Is this test a clinical diagnostic tool?
- No, it is a self-assessment screening aid and does not provide a medical diagnosis.
- Why are there two different distractor sets?
- The first set isolates color-based pop-out search, while the second requires combining color and shape, letting you compare the two attention modes.