Reaction tests look simple. A circle turns green, or a lamp flashes, or a tone sounds. You respond. Then a red one appears, or a pale flicker, and you are supposed to sit on your hands.
People train the first half and skip the second. That is how you get fast and dangerous.
Go / no-go is the point
A driver who is slow to a genuine signal is a problem. A driver who treats every flicker as a genuine signal is also a problem. The test is built to catch both. If you only watch your best time, you are watching the wrong number.
Some batteries use a visual flash. Some add sound. Some want you to ignore near-misses that look almost like the target. Read the live instructions. The family is the same: wait, go, withhold.
How people talk themselves into errors
- Anticipation. You click because it “must be soon”. It was not.
- Clicking again after a miss, as if to make up for it. The next trial is a new trial.
- Tight shoulders and a hovering finger. If you are already halfway to the click, red will take you with it.
How to practise
Practise mixed trials, not a run of pure greens. Watch false alarms as closely as misses. Sit as you will sit on the day: same hand, phone away, no soundtrack.
A practice score out of 100 is a training signal. It is not a pass. Use it to see if you are still responding to red. That is the useful question.