Color discrimination

Color Reaction Test

We give you a target color. Then circles start flashing: sometimes your color, sometimes a decoy. Tap only when you see the right one. It adds a layer the plain test skips: you have to recognise the color before you act, not just spot any change.

300–400 ms: A good color reaction time
8 targets: Tap each time your color shows
Wrong tap = error: Decoy colors count against you

Color Reaction

Tap only when you see the target color. Press to start.

Recognise, then react

Adding color changes the whole job. In the plain test, the second anything happens you can move, no thinking required. Here you have to answer a question first: is this the right color? That question takes time to answer, and the decoys are there to make you answer wrong. The result is a cleaner look at how fast you can actually process a signal, not just detect one.

It is a gentler cousin of the choice reaction test. There you pick between responses; here you pick whether to respond at all. Both show the same truth: the instant you add a decision, your reaction time stretches in a predictable way.

Which stage each test adds

Every reaction is a chain: detect something changed, work out what it was, decide what to do, then move. Our tests differ only in how much of that chain they make you run, which is why your numbers should come out in a predictable order:

Test	Detect	Identify	Choose a response	Withhold
Simple	Yes	No	No	No
Color (this one)	Yes	Yes	No	Yes
Go / No-Go	Yes	Yes	No	Yes
Choice	Yes	Yes	Yes	No

Read down the columns and your own results become a measurement rather than four unrelated scores. Color minus simple is roughly what identifying a color costs you. Choice minus color is roughly what picking between responses costs on top. If your color score is not slower than your simple score, you are almost certainly reacting to the flash rather than to the color, and the decoys will catch you eventually.

Color and go/no-go look identical in that table, and they nearly are. The difference is what the wrong signal asks of you: here a decoy is simply not your color, whereas a NO-GO signal is an active instruction to stop. Same stages, different amount of braking.

Getting a clean score

Lock the target in. Glance at the color name up top before you start and keep it in mind.
Resist the decoys. A wrong tap counts against you: better to pause a beat than fire at the wrong color.
Run it a few times with different target colors to see whether some are quicker for you than others.

Good to know

Frequently asked questions

How is this different from a normal reaction test?

A standard reaction test fires when anything changes. You don't have to think about what changed. Here you must identify the color first and respond only to the right one, which adds a recognition and decision step. That makes it a discrimination reaction test, and your times will run a little slower because of the extra processing.

Why do the decoy colors slow me down?

Because your brain has to check every flash against the target before deciding to move. That check costs time, and a convincing decoy can briefly pull a response out of you before you catch it. It is a small taste of what Hick's law describes: more to discriminate means more time. See choice reaction time.

What is a good color reaction time?

Expect it to land a bit above your simple reaction time (often in the 300–400 ms range) because of the recognition step. As always, consistency and low error counts matter more than one fast tap.