N-Back · Working memory
N-Back Test
A square moves around the grid. Tap Match when it lands where it was N steps back.
No IQ score. No cognitive age. No percentile we can’t source.
Working memory · Memory
N-Back
A square moves around the grid. Tap Match whenever it lands where it was N steps back — holding the stream in mind and refreshing it as each square arrives.
Your best hold · —
Measures working-memory updating on this device — how well you hold a short stream of positions and refresh it as each square arrives.
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Keep going
All games- Chronoscope · FocusReaction TimeHow fast are your reflexes?
- Sequencer · MemorySequence MemoryRepeat the growing pattern
- Plate · MemoryVisual MemoryFind the tiles that flashed
- Lexicon · MemoryVerbal MemoryHave you seen this word before?
- Reticle · FocusAim TrainerHit the targets, fast
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- Gate · ControlGo / No-GoTap — but hold when toldCore
- Router · FlexibilityTask SwitchChange the rule on the flyCore
- Goniometer · SpatialMental RotationSame shape, or mirrored?Core
- Register · MemoryNumber SpanHow long a number can you hold?Core
- Collimator · FocusFlankerAnswer the middle arrow, ignore its neighboursCore
- Comparator · MemoryChange DetectionOne item comes back — did it change?Core
- Titrator · LearningRule LearningFind the hidden rule from the feedbackCore
- Gantry · ControlTowerPlan the whole sequence before the first moveCore
Free to play here. On Train, part of Core.
What this measures
Your working-memory updating — holding a short stream of positions in mind and refreshing it as each new square arrives, so you can tell whether the current one repeats the position from N steps back.
Clear a round and N climbs. Then challenge a friend.
Questions
- What does N-Back measure?
- Working-memory updating — how well you hold a short stream of positions in mind and refresh it as each new square arrives. It is a reading of this task on this device.
- Calibrate or Climb?
- Calibrate is the honest instrument: two calm fixed blocks, a 2-back then a 3-back, at a steady pace — it gives your sensitivity as a wide band, your real number. Climb is the game: an adaptive ladder that follows you up and down, and the number you bank is the highest N you cleared.
- What is a good N?
- We do not publish one, and we have no norming sample that would let us. The number is honest by construction instead: clearing the N = 3 rung means you tracked three steps back well enough to pass, on this screen. The ladder you climbed on your own run is the comparison, and it is the only one we have.
- How is a round scored?
- By balanced accuracy: half your credit is for tapping Match on the real repeats (hits), half is for correctly staying off the non-repeats (correct rejections). Neither tapping on everything nor tapping on nothing can pass — you have to track the stream. In Climb, clearing 80% sends N up a rung, 60–80% replays the same N, and below that eases you down one — there is no game-over, and you bank when you like.
- How do I play?
- Watch the square light one cell at a time. When the lit cell is in the same position it was N steps back, tap the big Match button (or press space). The first N steps of each round are a charging ramp — no repeat is possible yet — then the register goes live.