A commission error happens when you respond when you should withhold a response, and an omission error happens when you fail to respond when a response is required. In a Go / No-Go classification game, a commission error shows up as selecting Go for a Purple triangle (a false alarm), and an omission error shows up as selecting No-go for a Green circle (a miss). Both error types are produced inside the same fixed twelve-cue route, so you can compare them in one sitting without switching tools. The route presents six Green-circle Go cues and six Purple-triangle No-go cues in a known product-authored order, and every cue asks for one explicit classification. Because No-go is a deliberate click instead of a timeout, every classification is observable and reviewable on the completion panel. The panel separates the four simple outcomes—hit, miss, false alarm, and correct rejection—so the difference between a commission and an omission error becomes a visible number you can read at a glance.
Commission vs Omission Errors: What Each One Means
The two error names come from signal detection and inhibition tasks, but the underlying idea is simple. A commission error is an unwanted action: you produced a response when the rule said to stay quiet. An omission error is a missing action: you stayed quiet when the rule said to act. They are mirror-image slips. A clean route has zero of both, and most routes contain a mix of the two rather than only one of them.
In laboratory settings these errors are usually measured by reaction time, and a No-go trial can be inferred from a missing response inside a hidden window. That design works for research, but it can mistake a hidden browser tab, a notification, or a paused page for a deliberate withholding. The Go / No-Go Test avoids that ambiguity by making No-go a button press or a key press rather than a pause. That single design choice turns both error types into visible events you can read on the completion screen.
The Go / No-Go Rule at a Glance
The route uses only two visual cues and one rule. A Green circle in the central panel means Go. A Purple triangle in the central panel means No-go. The rule reminder stays visible next to the cue for the entire route, so you do not have to memorize anything before you start. The rule is repeated for every cue, which keeps every classification tied to a specific visible shape rather than to memory.
| Cue | Correct response | Error if you do the opposite |
|---|---|---|
| Green circle | Select Go | Omission error (miss) |
| Purple triangle | Select No-go | Commission error (false alarm) |
The same cue and the same rule appear for every classification, which is what makes the route a fair comparison surface for the two error types. Once the rule is in front of you, the only variable is your own choice, not a hidden timer or a changing stimulus set.
How to Play the Twelve-Cue Route
- Open the Go / No-Go Test and select Start the twelve-cue route. The route contains six Green-circle cues and six Purple-triangle cues in a fixed order.
- Keep the rule reminder visible: Green circle = Go, Purple triangle = No-go. The same rule is shown next to every cue, so you can recheck it before each press.
- When a Green circle appears in the central panel, select Go using the labelled Go button or the G key as an optional keyboard shortcut.
- When a Purple triangle appears in the central panel, select No-go using the labelled No-go button or the N key as an optional keyboard shortcut.
- Advance one cue per response. Repeated key events, rapid clicks after a transition, or inputs after the route is complete do not register extra classifications, so your counts stay tied to the twelve cues.
- When the twelfth cue is classified, read the completion panel. It separates the four outcomes—hits, misses, false alarms, and correct rejections—into labelled counts.
Touch, pointer, and keyboard inputs all produce the same result, and the labelled buttons remain available alongside the G and N shortcuts on every cue. The same labelled buttons stay usable for touch and pointer users throughout the route.
Reading Hits, Misses, False Alarms, and Correct Rejections
The completion panel shows four counts rather than a single score. A hit is selecting Go for a Green circle, which is a correct response. A correct rejection is selecting No-go for a Purple triangle, which is also a correct response. A miss is selecting No-go for a Green circle, which is an omission error. A false alarm is selecting Go for a Purple triangle, which is a commission error. Accuracy is reported as the percentage of explicit selections that matched the fixed rule, and a clean route means zero misses and zero false alarms in the same round.
Suppose you classify eleven cues correctly and slip on one. Accuracy is then 11 ÷ 12 ≈ 91.7%. If your single slip was selecting Go for a Purple triangle, that one false alarm is a commission error. If your single slip was selecting No-go for a Green circle, that one miss is an omission error. The numeric answer stays the same in both cases, but the error category changes, and that change is visible on the completion panel.
Mapping Your Game Outcomes to Commission and Omission Errors
The labels matter because they describe what actually happened in the route you just played. A commission error tells you that an action slipped out when the rule called for restraint, and an omission error tells you that a needed action was withheld when the rule called for engagement. Both can occur in the same route, and seeing the mix is more informative than seeing a single accuracy number alone. The following table pairs each game outcome with the matching error category so you can read either name and arrive at the same count.
| Game outcome | What you did | Error category |
|---|---|---|
| Hit | Selected Go for a Green circle | Correct response |
| Correct rejection | Selected No-go for a Purple triangle | Correct response |
| False alarm | Selected Go for a Purple triangle | Commission error |
| Miss | Selected No-go for a Green circle | Omission error |
When you play a second round, the route is the same product-authored sequence, so any change between rounds comes from your visible choices rather than from a hidden algorithm. That repeatability makes it easier to ask which error type you tend to produce more often, which is a question the completion panel is designed to answer directly.
Why This Game Asks for an Explicit No-go
The game intentionally has no response timer. A timer-based No-go task can mistake an abandoned tab, an accessibility interruption, or a hidden notification for a meaningful lack of response. Here, No-go is a visible deliberate choice, which removes that ambiguity. The interaction is less like a traditional laboratory procedure, but clearer and more robust as a browser game. Familiarity, a screen reader or input method, interruptions, screen size, browser behaviour, and ordinary daily variation can all change a round, so a game result is best read as an accurate description of your visible choices in that one local session rather than a clinical reading.
The page does not request an account, profile, camera, microphone, upload, or contact detail, and the shared game shell may save a best score in browser storage only. Everything happens on your device, and the counts stay private to your session. That design is what lets a fixed twelve-cue route turn commission and omission errors into a transparent, repeatable comparison you can run any time you want a quick, visible record of how the two error types feel in the same round.
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