Trail Switch · Alternating Trail Test
Nodes are scattered across the board. Tap them in alternating order — 1, A, 2, B, 3, C… — as fast as you can without wrong taps.
How to play Trail Switch
Tap the nodes in alternating number-letter order: 1, then A, then 2, then B, and so on. The clock starts on your first tap and stops on the last node. Wrong taps flash red and cost time. Choose 12, 18 or 24 nodes.
What it measures
Trail Switch follows the alternating-trails paradigm from the 1940s Trail Making Test, a staple of attention research. The constant switching between two sequences — numbers and letters — taxes cognitive flexibility and visual scanning at the same time, which is why it feels so much harder than counting alone.
Honest note: Your time mixes scanning speed, motor speed and switching cost. Screen size matters too — compare runs on the same device.
What's a good score?
On 18 nodes, finishing under 30 seconds is solid and under 20 is quick. Expect roughly double your Schulte Table pace — the switching is the tax. The percentile we show is an estimate based on typical distributions, not a clinical norm.
FAQ
Why is this harder than Schulte Table?
Schulte is one sequence (1–25). Here you juggle two interleaved sequences and must switch between them at every step — that switch has a measurable time cost, which is exactly what the paradigm exposes.
What if I forget which letter comes next?
The HUD always shows the next target. Glancing at it costs a little time — reciting the pattern in your head is faster.