Flash Scan
Three zones, one flash. Tap instantly. Hick's Law in action — escalates to 4 zones mid-session.
How to Play
One of several zones flashes at a random moment. Tap it as fast as you can. Wrong zone, tapping too early, or missing the window all count as errors — but none of them end the session.
You start with 3 zones. Partway through the 40 seconds, a fourth zone joins. Your reaction time will likely climb the moment it does — that's expected, not a sign you're doing something wrong.
This is the one game where making a mistake costs you nothing but time. Errors are logged, not punished — the whole session runs the full 40 seconds regardless.
The Science Behind Flash Scan
Picking one item off a shelf is fast. Picking the right one off a shelf of five takes measurably longer, even though your hand does the exact same thing either way. That gap has a name, Hick's Law, and Flash Scan is built specifically to make you feel it happen in real time.
Hick's Law states that reaction time climbs predictably as the number of possible responses grows. It's not about the difficulty of any single choice; it's about how many choices are on the table at once. Flash Scan's jump from 3 zones to 4 partway through isn't the game getting vaguely harder — it's adding exactly one more alternative, and your reaction time should visibly slow the moment it does.
This is choice reaction time, a different measurement than simple reaction time, tested elsewhere on the platform in Freeze Your Brain. Simple reaction time asks how fast you can respond to one thing. Choice reaction time asks how fast you can also figure out which of several correct responses actually applies — a genuinely separate stage in the response pipeline.
Tips to Improve Your Score
- The slowdown at zone 4 is expected, not a failure. That's Hick's Law doing exactly what it predicts. Don't rush to compensate — accuracy still matters.
- A wrong tap costs you nothing but data. Nothing here ends the session early. Keep a steady pace instead of over-correcting after a miss.
- Rest your hand near the zones, not away from them. Since taps race against a random interval, starting from a ready position shaves real time off every response.
FAQ
What is Hick's Law?
The finding that reaction time increases predictably as the number of possible responses grows — more options on the table means a slower response, even for a task as simple as a single tap.
Is this based on an actual cognitive test?
Yes — Flash Scan is a choice reaction time test, built specifically to demonstrate Hick's Law, which is well established in reaction-time research.
Why add a 4th zone partway through instead of keeping it at 3?
To let you feel Hick's Law directly. One extra response alternative is added, and the resulting slowdown is the predicted effect happening live, not an arbitrary difficulty bump.
Why doesn't a wrong tap end the session?
Because the goal is continuous data across the full 40 seconds — reaction time and error rate together — not survival. Cutting the session short on a mistake would change what's actually being measured.