CogniFit - Brain Training

English
LoginLogin
Choose your platform and buy
Try if one month free of charge with 10 licenses.
What is the account for?
Welcome to CogniFit! Welcome to CogniFit Research! CogniFit Healthcare Boost Your Business with CogniFit! CogniFit Employee Wellbeing Distribute CogniFit to Businesses Empower your team

Sign up on here if you don't have your mobile handy

You are going to create a patient management account. This account is designed to give your patients access to CogniFit evaluations and training.

You are going to create a research account. This account is specially designed to help researchers with their studies in the cognitive areas.

You are going to create a student management account. This account is designed to give your students access to CogniFit evaluations and training.

You are going to create a family account. This account is designed to give your family members access to CogniFit evaluations and training.

You are going to create a company management account. This account is designed to give your employees access to CogniFit evaluations and training.

You're setting up your trainer account. With it, you’ll be able to invite your group and guide them through CogniFit evaluations and training activities.

For personal use

I'm a health professional

For my family

I'm an educator

I'm a researcher

Employee Wellbeing

Developers

reg_resellers

I’m a coach or sports professional

You are going to create a personal account. This type of account is specially designed to help you evaluate and train your cognitive skills.

You are going to create a patient management account. This account is designed to give your patients access to CogniFit evaluations and training.

You are going to create a family account. This account is designed to give your family members access to CogniFit evaluations and training.

You are going to create a research account. This account is specially designed to help researchers with their studies in the cognitive areas.

You are going to create a student management account. This account is designed to give your students access to CogniFit evaluations and training.

You are going to create a company management account. This account is designed to give your employees access to CogniFit evaluations and training.

You are going to create a developer account. This account is designed to integrate CogniFit’s products within your company.

You're setting up your trainer account. With it, you’ll be able to invite your group and guide them through CogniFit evaluations and training activities.

Do you already have a CogniFit account?
loading
Continue with Facebook Continue with Apple Sign in with Microsoft

For users 16 years and older. Children under 16 can use CogniFit with a parent on one of the family platforms.

By clicking Sign Up or using CogniFit, you are indicating that you have read, understood, and agree to CogniFit's Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy.

Scan the below QR with your phone to register through our mobile app for the ultimate convenience and access on-the-go!

Enhance Your Experience!

If you don't have your mobile handy sign up on here

Download our app to enjoy a good experience on this device

If you don't have your mobile handy sign up on here

Finger tapping test online: how fast can one finger go?

Find out how fast and how steadily your index finger can tap, and whether your pace holds to the end: the fine motor speed behind typing, texting and every quick press of a button.

Start now

10 seconds of scored tapping. Tutorial and a practice round included. Nothing to prepare.

Press the button as fast as you can until the bar stops

It looks simple. Your finger may disagree.

  1. 1
    Learn and practice

    A short tutorial and one practice round that count towards nothing.

  2. 2
    Tap until the bar stops

    One continuous scored stretch, ended by the clock.

  3. 3
    Your results

    Your speed and steadiness, read against reference ranges.

What the finger tapping test measures

The finger tapping test measures fine motor speed: how many times you can press one target with your index finger in a fixed time, with your hand resting still so only the finger moves. CogniFit's version is a digital implementation of the classic Finger Tapping Test and follows its published procedure.

It runs on a computer, a tablet or a phone, with a mouse click or a finger. There is a single control and nothing to choose between, so what it measures is speed, not decision.

Only your finger moves. Tap until the bar stops.

Rest your writing hand on the table and press the button with your index finger as fast as you can. The clock ends the round, not a number of taps.

The first secondThe bar is full and your finger is fresh. The target never moves.
The last secondSame target, same button. What changes is whether your rhythm holds.
  • Hand flat on the table. Your writing hand rests still.
  • Index finger only. The finger moves, not the hand.
  • No feedback. You are not told how you are doing while you tap.

From first tap to results

  1. 1
    Tutorial, as often as you like

    Repeat it before starting; it does not affect any result.

  2. 2
    One practice round

    Unscored, to find your position and your rhythm.

  3. 3
    The scored stretch

    Tap without pause until the bar runs out.

Now you know the one rule. See how long your rhythm lasts.

Try the 10 seconds

What a few seconds of tapping reveals

The task measures fine motor speed. It also contributes to the measurement of motor fatigue and of differences between your two hands.

A hand resting flat on a kitchen table, the index finger tapping a phone lying on the table
Fine motor speed
How quickly you can repeat one small, precise movement.Everyday moment: typing a quick reply on your phone.
Motor fatigue
Whether that pace holds or drops as the seconds pass.Everyday moment: keeping up a steady rhythm through a long stretch of typing.
Manual asymmetry
How the speed of one hand compares with the other.Everyday moment: a quick task with the hand you do not write with.

Curious where your own speed sits? It takes one round to find out.

Test your tapping speed

How to read your finger tapping test results

Three things tell most of the story: how fast you tapped, how steady your rhythm was, and how your first five seconds compare with your last five.

First 5 secondsCorrect taps counted from the start
Final 5 secondsCorrect taps counted back from the end
Schematic of one tapping round split into two halves Each tick is one tap along the round. The ticks are close together in the first half and spread further apart in the second, showing a pace that slows towards the end.
StartHalfwayBar stops
Schematic example, not real data. Measures as defined in CogniFit's task documentation.5

Speed

How many correct taps you made and your typical time per tap. More taps and a shorter typical time mean a faster finger. The typical time is a median: half your taps were quicker, half slower, so one slow tap does not move it.

Steadiness

How much your time varied from one tap to the next. A lower value means an even rhythm; a higher one means bursts of fast and slow. It is also weighed against your overall speed, so fast and slow tappers can be compared on steadiness alone.

First 5 seconds versus final 5 seconds

This is the task's key measure, and it is a simple comparison: count your correct taps in the first half, count them in the second. Close counts mean your pace held; fewer at the end mean your finger slowed as the seconds went by.

When the bar stops, the task shows your own results on a results screen, read against reference ranges. They place your numbers in context; they are a measure, not a medical assessment, and ranges describe groups of people rather than any one person.

The results screen also counts errors: fewer is better. If you want to see whether your numbers change over time, signing up keeps them for you.

Reading about a result is one thing. Seeing yours is another.

See your own numbers

The science behind the finger tapping test

One of the simplest ideas in cognitive testing: hold everything still except one finger, and time how fast it can go.

The Finger Tapping Test is an experimental paradigm with a published record in the cognitive literature. Its classic description is part of the Halstead-Reitan Neuropsychological Test Battery, as set out by Reitan and Wolfson (1993),1 and Schatz (2011) summarises the test in its entry in Springer's Encyclopedia of Clinical Neuropsychology.2 Researchers keep using and examining it: Ashendorf, Horwitz and Gavett (2015) studied how far the test can be shortened,3 and Arias and colleagues (2012) looked at its validity in young and older healthy adults and in people with Parkinson's disease, and at the role central fatigue may play in the result.4

CogniFit's version follows that published procedure: what is shown, how long for, what counts as an answer and what is measured are set from it rather than invented for this implementation.

What it can tell you

How fast and how steadily your finger tapped in this session, and whether your pace held from the first half to the second.

What it cannot tell you yet

What a given score means for you as a person. That needs population data for this version that has not been collected yet. The literature supports the paradigm, not this particular implementation.

More detail: how the measures are computed

Speed and steadiness are calculated from correctly answered taps. Error taps are left out of the variation measures, because their timing comes from a different process. Alongside the median time, the task also records the mean, which one unusually slow tap can pull up.

Every session also runs quality checks, such as how many answers came back too fast to be real and how many trials were usable. They decide whether a session can be read at all, and they describe the session, not you.

A person at a home-office desk tapping a mouse button with one finger, hand resting still

The paradigm is decades of research. Your round takes a moment.

Take the test yourself

Questions about the finger tapping test

How long does the finger tapping test take?
The scored part lasts 10 seconds. Before it, there is a short tutorial and one practice round, which are not counted in the scored time. You can repeat the tutorial as many times as you want before starting.
Do I need an account to take it?
You can take the test right here on this page and see your results at the end. Signing up is optional and lets you keep track of your results over time.
Can I take it on my phone?
Yes. It runs on a computer, a tablet or a phone. You answer with a mouse click or with your finger on the screen.
Why should only my finger move?
The test measures the speed of the finger itself. Resting your hand on the table and moving only your index finger is the rule of the published procedure the task follows.
Is this a medical test?
No. It is a measure of fine motor speed in one session, read against reference ranges. It does not diagnose anything and does not replace an assessment by a professional.

Now see how fast your finger really is

You know the rule, what it measures and how to read it. Tap until the bar stops, then keep your results if you want to follow them.

Start the tapping test Sign up to track your results

More cognitive tests to try

Sources

  1. Reitan, R. M., Wolfson, D. (1993). The Halstead-Reitan Neuropsychological Test Battery: Theory and clinical interpretation (2nd ed.). Neuropsychology Press. ISBN 9780934515146.
  2. Schatz, P. (2011). Finger Tapping Test. In J. S. Kreutzer, J. DeLuca & B. Caplan (Eds.), Encyclopedia of Clinical Neuropsychology. Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-79948-3_178
  3. Ashendorf, L., Horwitz, J. E., Gavett, B. E. (2015). Abbreviating the Finger Tapping Test. Archives of Clinical Neuropsychology, 30(2), 99-104. https://doi.org/10.1093/arclin/acu091
  4. Arias, P., Robles-García, V., Espinosa, N., Corral, Y., Cudeiro, J. (2012). Validity of the finger tapping test in Parkinson's disease, elderly and young healthy subjects: Is there a role for central fatigue?. Clinical Neurophysiology, 123(10), 2034-2041. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.clinph.2012.04.001
  5. CogniFit. Tap a Target as Fast as Possible: task procedure and measures.

This content and this test are for information only. They are not medical advice, do not provide a diagnosis and do not replace care from a qualified health professional. If you have concerns about your movement or health, talk to a professional.

Please type your email address