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🧠 Working Memory Test

Free Online Four-Part Working Memory Assessment

⚡ Quick Start

💡 This is a comprehensive assessment.
Visit the Working Memory Hub for individual tests and training.
➤Part 1 — Backward Digit Span: hold a digit sequence, then reproduce it in reverse
➤Part 2 — Reverse Spatial Span: watch locations light up, then tap them in reverse order
➤Part 3 — Reading Span: judge short sentences while remembering highlighted words
➤Part 4 — 2-Back: continuously update a rolling mental record and catch exact matches
➤Every part starts with unscored practice. After you have completed the test once on this browser, each part also offers Skip Practice for faster repeat runs.
➤The three span tasks adapt to your performance; 2-back uses a fixed run for a consistent updating measure.
➤Your overall Working Memory Score*, four section scores, highest and lowest numerical section scores, and raw task results appear at the end.
Four short tasks sample different working-memory demands instead of treating one task as the whole construct.
⏱️ About 6 minutes on a first run · faster repeats with practice skipping · keyboard, mouse, or touch
Part 1 of 4Getting ready

📊 Your Working Memory Results

0
Working Memory Score* · out of 100
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*The Working Memory Score and section ratings are Cognitive Train's own within-test scoring system. They are not a standardized Working Memory Index, percentile, IQ score, or clinical score. Use the raw spans, accuracy figures, and repeat-run history together. The four section scales use different internal formulas and have not been empirically equated, so their numerical differences should not be treated as calibrated differences in ability.

📊 Recent Results

📘 Detailed Instructions

About this test: Working memory is not one single task. This assessment samples four complementary task formats that require you to hold information while reversing it, processing something else, or continuously updating what stays active.

Part 1 — Backward Digit Span:

  • Digits appear one at a time. When the sequence ends, enter the digits in reverse order using the on-screen keypad or your number keys.
  • Example: 4 → 8 → 2 becomes 2 8 4.
  • There are six scored trials. The test starts at 3 digits, moves up after a correct trial, and moves down after an incorrect trial.
  • Your raw result shows your longest correctly reversed span. The section score also considers consistency across all six trials.

Part 2 — Reverse Spatial Span:

  • Blocks on a 3×3 grid light up in sequence. Afterward, tap those locations in reverse order.
  • The scored part starts at 2 locations and adapts after each of six trials.
  • Your raw result shows the longest reverse spatial sequence completed correctly.

Part 3 — Reading Span:

  • Read each sentence, decide whether it makes sense before the timer runs out, and remember the GOLD word.
  • After each set, select the gold words in the order they appeared. An equal number of extra words is mixed into the recall choices.
  • There are four scored sets. Set size adapts between 2 and 5 words using both recall and sentence-judgment performance.
  • The section score is driven by ordered word recall and the largest fully recalled set. Sentence-judgment accuracy is reported separately and acts as a validity gate: it affects adaptation and can cap the section score if overall accuracy falls below 70%, but sentence judgments do not directly add Working Memory points.

Part 4 — 2-Back:

  • One symbol appears at a time. Press Match or the Spacebar when the current symbol is the same as the symbol exactly two trials earlier.
  • Do nothing when it does not match. The scored run has 24 trials with six true matches, and each trial remains open for about 1.9 seconds before an unanswered target is counted as a miss.
  • The section score uses chance-adjusted balanced accuracy, so catching targets and avoiding false alarms both matter.

Overall scoring: Each part produces a 0–100 task score using its own task-specific performance. The overall Working Memory Score is the simple average of those four section scores. The result page also shows the meaningful raw result for each task and identifies your highest and lowest section scores on this run.

Practice and repeat runs: Every part includes an unscored practice on your first run. Once this browser has a completed Working Memory Test result, section intros also show Skip Practice so repeat testing is quicker.

Session controls: Switching tabs pauses timed presentation. On resume, Digit and Spatial presentations restart the current sequence; Reading Span restarts the current set; and 2-Back restarts the complete short run so required memory context is restored. Press Esc during a running test to pause manually. End Test abandons the current session and does not save a result.