The following test was developed by US psychologists to identify ‘supertaskers’ — people who excel at completing cognitive tasks simultaneously. According to the study’s results, just 2 per cent of the population are truly capable of supertasking, with most people’s brains unable to handle the overload. Take the test yourself to see if you’re that rare breed of human.
Most people think they can multitask to some degree — but what they are actually doing is devoting 100 per cent of their attention to separate tasks in alternating intervals. A true multitasker (or “supertasker”) is able to simultaneously drive, do complex maths and respond to cell phone prompts all at the same time. [Note: Don’t attempt this at home, kids.]
To assess ‘supertasking’ ability in humans, researchers from the University of Utah devised a test that involved subjects trying not to crash in a driving simulation while performing memory tasks and analysing maths problems. A whopping 98 per cent of participants failed abysmally. But the remaining 2 per cent passed. In fact, some even performed better when the individual tests were combined.
The researchers have now released an online version of the test in conjunction with the University of Newcastle in Australia. The publicly available version substitutes driving for door control but otherwise, the test principles and difficulty level remains unchanged. If you manage to pass this thing, you’re kind of a Big Deal — feel free to skite about it in the comments section below.
Comments
6 responses to “Take The ‘Supertasker’ Test To See If You’re A Genius”
That was pretty exhausting. Not sure if I passed or not – I got a number at the bottom of the screen to check when results are published but the scores were actually blank in the top bit of the screen (where it seems to list your actual scores). there were score categories but no numbers.
The site doesn’t seem to pick up my keyboard entry when it’s calling out the letters.
Not sure if I passed either. I also had blank scores in the final result section. A participant ID was given at the bottom of the results page (apparently to look up results?). At the end of most of the blocks my accuracy was usually mid 70%’s (I had a 68% low and two 93%’s). Av. response ranged from about 950ms to 1400s from memory.
More information here: http://newcl.org/Gatekeeper
My average response was around 850ms, but cripes that was boring as shite.
Just took it three times. Managed to click on the “get Adobe Flash Player” link in less than 20ms the third time. Guess that puts me in the top .001%. Was pretty boring though.
Way to make it something that it wasn’t intended to be.
Test of genius?
PROS
great concept to educate people about their multitasking skills
CONS
presentation was completely abstract and unrelated to real world challenges like texting & driving
boring and repetitive
too long to keep most users interested until the end
extraordinary confusing explanation for how to use it, results are hit and miss
technical flaws, the game doesn’t display results consistently
speed is apparently a factor in the results, but no clear mention of that
needs much more work
I feel that this test was poorly made.
The instructions are a bit confusing as it is not clear on when to actually start counting the “trials.” One would presume after the first two entries (employees enter), but not so apparently. Even if those first two entries were counted as “trails,” it still doesn’t work out. The test just becomes a guessing game, which sets the test subject up for failure.
I’m very surprised this was deemed worthy by the peers of the US psychologists who created it.
I found a few others that were quick and easy.
http://davecrenshaw.com/multitasking-example/
http://open-site.org/blog/the-multitask-test/
http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2010/06/07/technology/20100607-distraction-filtering-demo.html