When performing a task, there is a trade-off between the speed of response and accuracy: the earlier the action, the more mistakes made. This difficulty in responding fast but accurately can explain an unexpected observation, where mice take longer to learn a task when the reward timing is early. The image shows a lick raster, where the dark green dots indicate the timings of licks produced by an animal, in anticipation of a reward. Incorrect licks (mistakes) are represented by orange dots. For more information, see the article by Reuschenbach, Reinert et al. (pages 3120–3130). Cover image: Mirijam Neve.