What is it, really?
Attention is not one thing: there is sustained focus on a task, filtering out distractions, and rapid search for one detail in a busy scene. What they share: the mind chooses what to process and what to let go.
The field’s most famous measure is the "Stroop effect" (Stroop, 1935): when the word "red" is printed in green ink, naming the ink colour takes longer, because reading the word is automatic and naming the colour requires holding it back. More than fifty years of research on the effect were summarised in a comprehensive review (MacLeod, 1991).
How researchers measure it
In the lab, attention is measured with Stroop tasks, visual-search tasks (finding a specific item among distractors) and tracking tasks (following one moving object among lookalikes). The games in our attention section are built around those same tasks: "Stroop Test" is the original task itself, and "Target Tracker" and "Object Identification" are built around search and tracking.
What it looks like day to day
In daily life: reading a book with the television on, spotting your granddaughter in a group photo, or following one conversation at a noisy family dinner.
About the research
The original Stroop-effect paper. Our "Stroop Test" game is built on exactly this task.
Stroop, J. R. (1935). Studies of interference in serial verbal reactions. Journal of Experimental Psychology.
Fifty years of Stroop research summarised, and why this simple task became a classic measure of attention.
MacLeod, C. M. (1991). Half a century of research on the Stroop effect: An integrative review. Psychological Bulletin.
This page explains how researchers define and measure this ability. It is not medical advice and not a promise of training outcomes.
Games built around Attention
Ready to start?
Free signup, 50 games are waiting inside.
Open a free account