Eye for Detail

Let’s say you’re in an unfamiliar part of town looking to meet up with a friend for lunch. As you make your way to the restaurant you have to keep track of traffic, pedestrians, and the other hazards—while at the same time continually scanning the street names and business addresses. To do that while staying safe, your eyes have to move around very quickly. These quick eye movements are called “saccades.” And with each saccade, you have to collect information in mere milliseconds.

Eye for Detail is one of the exercises from BrainHQ’s Brain Speed category, and it is designed to exercise your ability to make saccades quickly, and to notice subtle details with each one. In Eye for Detail, a series of images briefly appear one at a time in different positions on the screen. Some images match precisely, while others are similar but not the same. Your task is to identify where the identical images appeared. 

Here’s how the exercise works:

1. The START screen will display several objects—butterflies, flowers, leaves, etc. These will be the items you’ll be presented with throughout this level. Select START to begin.
   
2. A series of objects will appear one at a time across the screen in random areas. As the objects appear, identify where the identical images appeared.
   
3. When the final object disappears, you’ll be presented with buttons where the objects had appeared. Select the buttons where the identical objects previously appeared.
   

If an incorrect answer is given, you’ll hear a “bonk” sound and the objects may appear on screen for a longer amount of time. If a correct answer is given, you’ll hear a “boop” sound and the objects may appear on screen for shorter amounts of time. In both cases, the level then continues, repeating from Step 2 above.

You can review the exercise video tutorial below:

BrainHQ - Eye for Detail from BrainHQ from Posit Science on Vimeo.

As you progress through Eye for Detail, it becomes more challenging in these ways:

• The objects become more similar.
• The objects are spread farther apart, pushing your brain to move your eyes a greater distance.
• The number of objects that can appear within each sequence will increase.