Go/No-Go Test

It measures response inhibition: stopping an action you are already set to make. The idea goes back to the 19th century, when Donders timed a task in which people respond to one signal and hold back on the others [1]. In a go/no-go test you answer most shapes with a quick tap, so tapping becomes a habit, and the rare "no-go" shape asks you to break it.

This is the same test as in the Helibrain app: a short practice with feedback, then 40 shapes, each shown for 800 ms with a 600 ms gap. About 25% are orange squares, spread through the run.

Because the test only works that way. A study comparing versions of the task found that holding back only takes real self-control when the pace is fast and no-go shapes are rare. Slow versions with as many no-go as go shapes barely test it [2].

• Answered right: the share of all shapes you handled correctly, a tap for a circle, no tap for a square.
• Squares tapped: failed stops. This is the main inhibition error.
• Circles missed: usually a lapse of attention, or being too careful.
• Circle speed: your average time to tap a circle. Going faster often costs more failed stops, so look at both together.

There is no single standard version of this test, so scores from other sites or studies are not directly comparable. Compare with your own earlier runs.

Brain-imaging studies of go/no-go tasks link withholding a response to a network in the frontal and parietal lobes, and which areas show up depends on how the task is built [3].

Tiredness is one factor. In one study, after a night without sleep people more often failed to hold back a response to negative pictures [4]. Distraction, rushing and simply being new to the task also move the score, so treat one run as a snapshot.