Flanker: Arrows
React to the central arrow
About this trainer
A central arrow is surrounded by flanking arrows that point the same way (congruent) or the opposite way (incongruent). You respond to the centre one only — and the flankers fight you when they disagree.
What it develops
Selective attention and response inhibition — focusing on a target while suppressing interference from distractors right next to it.
History
Introduced in 1974, it became one of the most important tasks in cognitive psychology for studying attention and response competition, and is a core part of modern attention-network testing.
Who created it — and when
Barbara and Charles Eriksen, who published the flanker task in 1974 (Perception & Psychophysics).
How to train
Lock onto the centre and treat the flankers as noise. Watch your congruency effect — the extra time on incongruent trials — and aim to shrink it without sacrificing accuracy.
How long to practise
Short blocks, a few minutes at a time. Expect your congruency cost to fall early and then stabilise.
Evidence base
A robust, heavily replicated effect. Training lowers your interference on the task itself; like other conflict tasks, evidence for broad transfer to everyday focus is limited — train it for the specific skill.
Recommendations
Use it to practise narrow, distractor-proof focus. Keep accuracy high; the goal is resisting the flankers, not blind speed.
FAQ
What is the flanker effect?
You are slower and less accurate when the surrounding arrows point opposite to the central target.
What does it train?
Selective attention and the ability to inhibit nearby distractors.
Arrows or letters?
Both exist — the classic version used letters; arrows are the common modern form.
Variants
Arrow, letter and colour flankers; varying flanker distance; and combined conflict batteries such as attention-network tests.