{"schemaVersion":1,"record":{"key":"mechanic/shared-family-08","type":"mechanic","id":"shared-family-08","lang":"en","title":"Attention, switching and inhibition","summary":"The player identifies a target signal and acts only when the required condition is met, withholding premature or habitual responses.","updatedAt":"2026-10-22","status":"active","url":"https://gamemechanics.pro/en/knowledge/mechanic/shared-family-08/","jsonUrl":"https://gamemechanics.pro/api/v1/knowledge/en/mechanic/shared-family-08.json","markdownUrl":"https://gamemechanics.pro/content/knowledge/en/mechanic/shared-family-08.md","aliases":["Attention and response inhibition"],"tags":["Children’s games","Perception, attention and information","Educational games"],"sourceIds":["source-24f9d145885e7fad"],"sources":[{"id":"source-24f9d145885e7fad","title":"Human Benchmark","url":"https://humanbenchmark.com/tests/reactiontime","verifiedAt":null}],"sections":[{"id":"principle","title":"How it works","body":"Respond only to a target cue"},{"id":"variants","title":"Variants","body":"### Variants\n\n<a id=\"family-08-branch-1\"></a>\n\n- Respond only to a target cue <a id=\"family-08-variant-1\"></a>\n- Ignore forbidden cues <a id=\"family-08-variant-2\"></a>\n- Stop an action on cue <a id=\"family-08-variant-3\"></a>\n- Play with reversed rules <a id=\"family-08-variant-4\"></a>\n- Track a moving object <a id=\"family-08-variant-5\"></a>\n- Notice rare events <a id=\"family-08-variant-6\"></a>\n- Switch between rules <a id=\"family-08-variant-7\"></a>\n- Ignore distracting properties <a id=\"family-08-variant-8\"></a>\n- Divide attention across channels <a id=\"family-08-variant-9\"></a>\n- Pause before choosing <a id=\"family-08-variant-10\"></a>"},{"id":"example","title":"Design example","body":"Select green fish while ignoring green fish with stripes."},{"id":"context","title":"Context and limits","body":"An action map for children’s digital, board, active and mixed games. An instructional goal is optional: children can invent stories, explore toys, compete or enjoy play itself. Select age suitability, reading demands, controls and pace separately; different implementations can suit different ages. Learning tasks and instructional support have their own reference."},{"id":"context-education","title":"Context: Educational games","body":"A mechanic map for games with explicit learning goals, from first encounters with a topic to professional practice. It covers children, teenagers and adults; choose subject, difficulty, context and controls for the learner. Player actions, subject content, instructional support and assessment are distinct layers. Scores and game completion alone do not establish mastery or skill transfer."}],"relations":[],"placements":[{"catalogId":"children","id":"family-08","title":"Children’s games","url":"https://gamemechanics.pro/en/mechanics/children/#family-08","categoryIds":["perception"]},{"catalogId":"education","id":"family-08","title":"Educational games","url":"https://gamemechanics.pro/en/mechanics/education/#family-08","categoryIds":["perception"]}],"supersededBy":[],"attributes":{"preview":{"updatedAt":"2026-10-22","title":"Attention and response inhibition","description":"The player identifies a target signal and acts only when the required condition is met, withholding premature or habitual responses.","image":{"src":"images/mechanics/learning-human-benchmark-reaction.webp","width":1280,"height":464,"game":"Human Benchmark","sourceUrl":"https://humanbenchmark.com/tests/reactiontime","originalUrl":"https://humanbenchmark.com/tests/reactiontime","credit":"Human Benchmark; public test capture, 2026-10-22","rights":"© Human Benchmark. Actual unsigned test session captured 2026-10-22. Cropped to the application header and task area; advertising outside the task omitted. All rights reserved; excluded from MIT and CC BY 4.0.","caption":"Human Benchmark: the red state requires waiting for the green signal","alt":"Human Benchmark: the red state requires waiting for the green signal","markers":[{"x":50,"y":51,"label":"Wait for green requires withholding the click"}]},"tips":["Do not encode the target signal through color alone."],"examples":[{"title":"Human Benchmark","url":"https://humanbenchmark.com/tests/reactiontime"}]}},"endsAt":null,"provenance":"Play-focused selection adapted from the original children-education taxonomy, with original editorial additions dated 2026-10-20. Developer sources support specific examples, not the entire classification.","license":"CC-BY-4.0","codeLicense":"MIT","attribution":"gamemechanics.pro contributors","catalogKey":"catalog/children"}}