Sort Rush

About this test

Sorting objects by a rule is easy. Sorting by a rule that keeps changing is another matter: that is the principle behind task-switching exercises, where the cost being measured is not the sorting but the switch. The moment a rule flips, the first few objects take longer and draw more errors, even when the new instruction is perfectly understood.

This game cycles through four different rules — the parity of a number, filled versus hollow shapes, size, and a count of dots — and swaps them every ten objects. The falling speed rises continuously, which stops you from absorbing the switch by slowing down. Your score therefore depends as much on your ability to drop the old instruction as on your reflexes.

One strategy note worth keeping: do not look at the banner, leave it in your peripheral vision and only refresh it the moment it changes. Players who reread the rule for every object lose a third of their score to eye movements.

How it works

Four sorting rules follow each other in a random order, ten objects each. An object left to hit the floor counts as a miss, exactly like one sent the wrong way. A run lasts sixty seconds and your score is the number of objects sorted correctly: ten objects scores zero out of a hundred, ninety scores one hundred.