game 8 of 16 · measures attention

Flanker task with rule switching

Inside TELLS it's “The Arrows” — blue: follow the middle arrow. Red: follow the side arrows. The rule flips on you.

part of the full 16-game test · about 12 minutes

What the Flanker task with rule switching is

Five arrows. On blue trials you follow the middle one; on red trials, the side ones — and the rule keeps flipping. This is the Eriksen flanker task (1974) crossed with task-switching, the combination behind the 'Arrows' game in gamified hiring tests.

What it measures

The flanking arrows are engineered to hijack your attention; the colour flip is engineered to break your habit. Staying accurate measures selective attention and cognitive flexibility at once — how fast you can suppress the obvious read and apply the current rule instead of the last one.

Twitchy

Under speed you fire first and regret it a beat later.

Steady

You hold the line until it really speeds up.

Controlled

The faster it gets, the harder you are to bait.

Why hiring assessments use it

Arrows-style tasks feed both attention and learning factors in hiring assessments. Recruiters read the error pattern: mistakes on switch trials mean the old rule was still driving.

TELLS is an independent project — not affiliated with pymetrics, Harver, or any employer's assessment. This is the fun version.