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Go / no-go

Press for the go items, fast — and hold back on the others, which come rarely and look more and more like them.

  • Attention and speed
  • Timed
  • 15 levels

How it plays

Items flash one at a time. Press Go (Space, or the button) for every go item and do nothing for the rest. Most are go, so pressing becomes a habit; the no-go is the moment to stop it.

Levels bring rules where the no-go looks more like the go — a hollow star against a filled one, an X among letters, the one arrow that points the wrong way — and quicker items.

Keys

Space starts and skips ahead · 1–9 pick · Enter submits · Esc stops. On a phone, tap.

What it trains

This practises stopping a prepared response. It is practice at this task, not a claim about self-control in general.

Learn

How to get better at go / no-go: the method, the techniques, what each new level asks of you, and the traps the wrong answers are made of.

Your approach to each question

  1. Read the rule above the run — “filled or hollow”, “letters, not X” — and the line under it, which says exactly what to press for.
  2. Before the first item, name the stop item to yourself in two words: “not ✚”, “not hollow”, “only right”. That is the only thing you are watching for.
  3. Rest a finger on Space, or a thumb on the Go button, so pressing is a twitch rather than a reach.
  4. As each item appears, press unless it is the stop item. Each item is shown, then a 200 ms blank, and a press in that blank still counts for the item just gone — so a beat to be sure costs you nothing.

Techniques and tricks

  • Watch for the stop, not the go

    In most rules the go items are many and the stop item is one: “any shape but ★”, “every letter except X”. Hold the one stop item in mind and treat everything else as a press.

  • Flip it when the go is the single item

    For “arrows that point right”, the go is one item and the stops are three. Hold → alone in mind and let ←, ↑ and ↓ all mean wait.

  • Use the blank after each item

    The press window is the item’s time plus the 200 ms blank that follows. At 400 ms items that is 600 ms in all, enough to see first and press second.

  • Know the even set by sight

    For “even numbers” the go set is only 2, 4, 6 and 8. See each as a member of that set of four, rather than working out odd or even each time.

  • Expect the stop on every item

    About seven items in ten are go, so after a run of presses your finger is primed. Each item is drawn afresh, so the stop item can come at any moment — meet every item as if it might be the one.

As the levels climb

  • The rules come in a fixed order, each with a stop item closer to the go: ★ against ✚, then the filled ★ against the hollow ☆ at level 1, any shape but ★ at level 4, letters but X at level 7, arrows that point right at level 10, and even numbers at level 13.
  • Items speed up from 900 ms to 750 at level 2, 620 at level 5, 520 at level 8, 450 at level 11 and 400 at level 14 — the last of the fifteen levels.
  • Runs lengthen from 12 items to 16, 20, 24 and 28 at levels 3, 6, 9 and 12. A long run is where readiness slips; hold the stop item in mind to the last item.
  • Level 4 turns the rules round: ★, which you pressed for in the first two rules, becomes the one item to hold back on. Expect your old habit to press for it for a run or two.

Traps to avoid

  • The habit press: pressing on the stop item because the last few were go. A press on a stop item cancels one hit, so it costs as much as a miss.
  • The old rule: pressing for ★ under “any shape but one”, because ★ was the go item in the rules before it.
  • Forgetting the vertical arrows. Under “arrows that point right”, ↑ and ↓ are stops too, not only ←.
  • Reading a letter by its strokes at speed: K and Y share X’s diagonals. Under “letters, not X”, hold only for the full cross.

How to practise

  • After each run, read the strip: ✓ is a hit, ○ a go item you missed, ✗ a press on a stop item. A trail of ✗ means you are pressing ahead of seeing; a trail of ○ means you are holding back too much.
  • Turn off “A perfect, fast judgement skips a level” to spend real time on each new rule instead of leaping past it.
  • Raise “Score to move up (%)” to 100 if you want each level held to clean runs before the next rule comes.

Levels

Each question has a clock that comes from the work it asks for. There are 15 levels with the default settings, and the counter stops at the real top. Your level is judged on your last ten answers, every ten: 90% moves you up, below 80% moves you down, which holds most people near four in five right.

All of it is in the settings beside Start — how many answers a judgement looks at and how often it recalibrates, the thresholds, the time, which questions, how many options, and whether you see each verdict at once or review them together at the judgement. You can also jump to any level.

More attention and speed

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