Attention Span Test: How Attention Is Measured and How to Test Yours

Why there is no single attention span score

Attention isn't one ability. Researchers separate sustained attention (staying with one thing over time), selective attention (focusing on what matters while ignoring the rest) and working memory (holding information in mind while you use it). A person can be good at one and weaker at another, so each kind needs its own test.

The result also depends on the task and the setting. Wikipedia's summary of the research notes that measuring attention span depends on what the attention is being used for, and that small changes in the testing room can shift scores; people stay on task longer when the examiner is present, for example. A boring lab task, a gripping film and a work report will each give you a different "attention span". That's also why the famous claim that people have an 8-second attention span doesn't hold up, as explained in the goldfish attention span myth.

So the useful question isn't "what is my attention span?" but "which part of my attention do I want to check, and in what situation?"

The tests psychologists actually use

Continuous performance test (CPT)

A CPT is the classic test of sustained attention. It is deliberately repetitive and boring: letters, numbers, shapes or sounds appear one after another, and you respond to targets and hold back on everything else for several minutes. In the Conners CPT-III, for example, you press the space bar for every letter except X. The test records correct responses, reaction times, omissions (targets you missed, a sign of inattention) and commissions (responses you should have held back, a sign of impulsivity), and compares them with norms for your age and gender. Other well-known versions are the T.O.V.A., which uses geometric shapes so reading ability doesn't matter, and the IVA-2, which tests visual and auditory attention.

Sustained Attention to Response Task (SART)

The SART turns the CPT around. Digits from 1 to 9 flash on the screen and you press a key for every one of them, except a rare target, usually the digit 3, which shows up about one time in nine. Ian Robertson and colleagues introduced it in 1997 in a paper titled "Oops!". Because you press almost all the time, the response becomes automatic, and the mistakes show the moments your attention drifted. The authors found that false presses were preceded by faster and faster responses, the sign of slipping into autopilot, and that SART scores went along with how many everyday attention slips people and those close to them reported.

Stroop task

The Stroop task shows color words printed in a different ink color, such as the word "red" in blue, and you name the ink color, not the word. Reading is so automatic that the word gets in the way, and the delay compared with neutral items is the Stroop effect. John Ridley Stroop published it in English in 1935. It is used as a measure of selective attention, cognitive flexibility and processing speed.

Digit span

In a digit span test you hear or see a string of digits and repeat it, with one more digit each round, until you make mistakes. The backward version, where you repeat the digits in reverse order, is harder. It mainly measures short-term and working memory rather than attention in the everyday sense, but it is part of many IQ tests, including the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale, and it suffers when you are distracted. The often-quoted average for adults is about seven digits, plus or minus two.

Vigilance tests

The oldest attention test is the Mackworth Clock, built by Norman Mackworth to simulate the long watches of British radar operators in World War II. A pointer jumps once a second and now and then jumps twice; you press a button for each double jump, often for two hours. It helped establish the vigilance decrement: people's accuracy at spotting the signal drops notably after about 30 minutes on the task. Modern computer versions are still used in research.

How to take an attention span test online

Most online "attention span quizzes" are a few questions about how often you get distracted. They can make you think, but they aren't tests. If you want to try a real task, use a version of the ones above.

1. Open a task library from a research platform. PsyToolkit, run by a team led by Professor Stoet, has an experiment library with in-browser demos of the SART, the Stroop task (including a phone version), digit span forward and backward, go/no-go, flanker tasks and the AX-CPT. It describes itself as made in academia for research and teaching.
2. Pick the part of attention you care about. Choose the SART if you want to know how well you stay with a dull task, the Stroop task for how well you ignore distractions, and digit span for how much you can hold in mind. The SART demo on PsyToolkit takes about five minutes.
3. Set up a fair test. Use a computer if you can, put your phone in another room, turn off notifications and take the test at a time of day when you'd normally work. A test taken right after a night of poor sleep says more about the night than about you.
4. Read the result as a snapshot. The SART demo shows how many mistakes you made after each block. A browser demo has no norms for your age, so you can't turn it into a percentile. It is most useful for comparing yourself with yourself: same task, same conditions, a few weeks apart.

A simple home test for your everyday attention span

Lab tasks measure attention under ideal conditions. What most people mean by a short attention span is how fast they drift away from real work or reading. You can measure that directly, the same way attention researcher Gloria Mark does: she used computer logging to see how long people stayed on one screen before switching. In her studies, the average fell from about two and a half minutes in 2004 to about 47 seconds in recent years. More on her findings is in what research says about the average attention span.

A low-tech version for yourself:

• Pick one real task, such as reading a book chapter or writing a report, and start a stopwatch.
• Stop the clock the first time you switch: you pick up your phone, open a new tab or check a message, even for a second. Note the time and what pulled you away.
• Repeat a few times a day for three to five days and look at the typical time, not the best one.
• Look at the pattern, not only the number. If most switches start with a notification or a quick look at a feed, you've found the cause.

Your phone's own numbers help too. Digital Wellbeing on Android shows how long you spend in each app; how to check screen time on Android walks through it. Then run the home test again after a change, such as two weeks with fewer notifications, and compare.

What an attention test can't tell you

A bad score in a browser task doesn't mean you have ADHD, and a good score doesn't rule it out. In the NHS, ADHD in adults is diagnosed through an assessment with a specialist such as a psychiatrist, who asks about the history of your symptoms, especially whether they started in childhood, and about work, education, relationships and your medical history. For children, the NHS says the specialist may use a computer-based test to help assess symptoms, as one part of a wider assessment. CPTs are used the same way, as part of a battery of tests, and Wikipedia notes that some experts have rejected tests like the CPT as measures of attention span at all.

If trouble focusing has been with you since childhood and causes problems at work, in your studies or in relationships, the useful next step is your doctor, not another online test. If it started more recently, look first at sleep, stress and how your phone is set up; what causes a short attention span goes through the common causes.

If short videos are part of the problem

When the home test shows that most of your switches end in a feed, the easiest fix is often to change the feed rather than your willpower. Android's Digital Wellbeing app timers lock an app for the rest of the day once you reach a limit you set, which works well if you want less of the whole app. They can't stop the endless swipe from one short video to the next while you still use the app for messages or search.

Dam It! does that one thing: it blocks the swipe to the next video in YouTube Shorts, Instagram Reels and TikTok on Android, while videos you open on purpose from a link, a notification or a thumbnail still play. It isn't a focus timer, doesn't block whole apps and isn't available on iPhone. For more ideas that don't involve an app, see how to improve your attention span.