Cross Wires
Match the shape to its button. Where it lands is irrelevant — your reflexes won't agree. Trains inhibitory control.
How to Play
Two buttons sit at the bottom of the screen, each showing a shape. A shape appears in the arena above. Tap the button that shows the same one.
The catch: the shape lands on the left or the right, and that side has nothing to do with the answer. Sometimes it lands on the same side as its button, sometimes on the opposite one. You get 3 lives, 40 answers, and a response window that keeps shrinking. From level 3, a third shape, the triangle, joins one of the two buttons and counts as that button's answer.
On a keyboard, the ← and → keys press the left and right buttons.
The Science Behind Cross Wires
Cross Wires is built on the Simon effect. When a stimulus appears on the same side as the correct response, people answer faster and more accurately than when it appears on the opposite side, even when the stimulus's position plays no role in the task (Hommel, 1993).
The effect is named after J. Richard Simon, whose early work studied how the spatial relationship between a display and the response keys changes reaction time. It differs from a Stroop task, where two features of the same stimulus disagree: here the interference comes from where the stimulus happens to be. Like the Stroop effect, though, you can feel it happen, because your hand wants to follow the side even when you know the rule.
In lab versions, the gap between same-side and opposite-side trials is often just a few tens of milliseconds. That is why Cross Wires scores accuracy and streaks rather than timing your reactions. It exercises one mechanism, overriding an automatic spatial response. It doesn't claim to change your self-control outside the game.
Tips to Improve Your Score
- Decide from the shape, not the side. If your eyes go to the side first, the pull has a head start. Read the shape, then tap.
- Learn the mapping early. The two starting shapes stay on their buttons for the whole run. At level 3 a triangle joins one of those buttons, which then shows both icons. Read the banner once, glance at the button, then stop rechecking.
- Expect the pull, answer anyway. A wrong-side shape will feel like it belongs on the other button. That feeling is the effect, not information. The window is short, but a wrong answer costs a life however it happened.
FAQ
If the side is irrelevant, why does it still pull at my hand?
Because the pull is automatic. This is the Simon effect: choice reactions are faster when the response side corresponds to the stimulus side, even when stimulus location is irrelevant to the task (Hommel, 1993). Knowing the rule doesn't switch the pull off. You have to override it, answer by answer.
Trick Brain also uses left and right. Where does the conflict come from here?
In Trick Brain, two properties of the same stimulus disagree: an arrow's direction and the word inside it. In Cross Wires the shapes have no left or right direction at all. The interference comes purely from where on the screen a shape lands, which has no bearing on the right answer.
The Simon effect is named after a researcher. What did the early studies actually show?
J. Richard Simon's early work showed that the spatial relationship between stimulus and response changes reaction time. In a 1963 study with James Wolf, the least compatible display arrangement slowed reactions by about 30%. In 1967, Simon and Alan Rudell had people press a left or right key in response to the spoken words "left" and "right" played to one ear, and the irrelevant ear still affected performance. That line of work is where the Simon effect gets its name.
Will a good run here show up in everyday self-control?
There's no evidence that it will. Cross Wires exercises one specific mechanism, overriding an automatic spatial response, and that carry-over to real-world impulse control hasn't been shown. See How We Measure for what the scores can and can't tell you.