How the task works
Keep the previous symbol active, compare it with the current one, answer, and replace the remembered item. Longer sessions add sustained-attention demands.
Speed Match
Compare each symbol with the one immediately before it and answer without losing your rhythm.
Choose session length
Longer sessions demand steadier working memory.
Task guide and research
Free 1-back memory game for rapid symbol matching
Speed Match is a one-back task: for each symbol, decide whether it matches the symbol immediately before it. The task combines continuous updating with a speeded same-or-different response.
Research connection
The n-back paradigm originated in research on rapidly changing information. Construct-validity work also shows that n-back and traditional working-memory span are not interchangeable, so the page avoids calling this a universal working-memory test.
How to interpret your result
Accuracy and pace describe this one-back format. Practice effects, guessing strategy, motor speed, and device latency mean scores should not be treated as a broad processing-speed or intelligence measure.
Research sources
- Age differences in short-term retention of rapidly changing informationKirchner (1958), Journal of Experimental Psychology
- Working memory, attention control, and the N-back task: a question of construct validityKane et al. (2007), Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition
These papers support the task paradigm and how researchers interpret it. They do not prove that this web game diagnoses a condition or produces broad, lasting cognitive improvement.
Questions people ask
What does this exercise practice?
Keep the previous symbol active, compare it with the current one, answer, and replace the remembered item. Longer sessions add sustained-attention demands.
What does my score mean?
Accuracy and pace describe this one-back format. Practice effects, guessing strategy, motor speed, and device latency mean scores should not be treated as a broad processing-speed or intelligence measure.
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