How much can you hold in mind at once?
Digits appear one at a time. When they stop, type them back in the same order. That is the whole task — no strategy, no writing it down, no second look.
It takes about two minutes. There is no account, no email, and nothing to sign up for. Your answers are not stored or sent anywhere — the test runs entirely in your browser and your result exists only on your screen.
Sequences start short and get longer. You get two attempts at each length.
Works with a keyboard, a numeric keypad, or one thumb.
Before you start
- It measures one narrow thing — how much you can hold at once, right now, in the conditions you are in.
- Conditions matter more than you might think. Tired, distracted, or on a train are all part of the result rather than exceptions to it.
- Doing it twice usually raises the number without anything about you having changed.
Digit span test in progress
Watch the digits.
Type the sequence back, in order.
Your result
What this task tested
This task asks you to hold a sequence in mind for a few seconds and give it back exactly — no strategy, no writing it down, no second look. It is one task in the Working Memory domain.
What that means
What this did not measure
This says nothing about long-term memory, about whether you remember faces or names, or about your memory as a whole. It measures one narrow thing: how much you can hold at once, right now.
This is a domain score, not a BrainScore. A single task in a single domain does not make a composite, and we are not going to invent the rest of it.
An online test cannot tell you whether something is medically wrong. If you are worried about your memory, that is a question for a doctor.
Things that moved this number that are not your memory
- Repeat attempts. Doing this again usually improves the span without any underlying change. A second attempt is not progress.
- Your day. Sleep, stress, illness, caffeine, time of day and interruptions are conditions we cannot hold constant and did not measure.
- Where you were. This taken on a train is not comparable to this taken at a desk.
One question, if you have ten seconds
We are trying to find out whether explaining a result is worth doing at all. Nothing is recorded except which button you press — no result, no identifier, nothing that could be traced to you.
Did the explanation above tell you anything useful about yourself?
Recorded. Thank you — that is genuinely useful.
Want the harder version?
There is a second phase where the digits come the same way but you type them back in reverse order. It is meaningfully harder, because holding a sequence and turning it round are not the same job.
It is optional and it does not change the result above. Your forward span is your result whether you do this or not. Nothing above is being withheld.
Reverse span
Your result is still your forward span. The reverse number is reported next to it, not folded into it — combining two different demands into one figure would make the number harder to check, not easier.
What next
- — remembering that a second attempt is usually higher for reasons that are not you
- How BrainScore works — what we measure, and what we cannot tell you
How this is scored
Published in full, because a score you cannot check is not worth much.
The task
- Digits appear one at a time, each visible for 1000ms with a 200ms gap. The rate is fixed and does not adapt to how you are doing — adaptive timing would make results incomparable between attempts and between people.
- Sequences start at length 3. You get two attempts at each length.
- You advance a length if at least one of the two attempts is correct. The test stops when both attempts at a length are wrong.
The scoring rule
Your forward span is the longest length at which at least one of your two attempts was correct. That is the whole rule. There is no adjustment, no weighting, and no hidden modifier. What is shown is what was computed.
The reverse phase
- It is offered after your result, never before, and it is optional. Your result is complete without it and nothing is held back pending it.
- It runs the same procedure with the same rule — same fixed rate, same two attempts per length, same start at 3 — and the only difference is that a correct answer is the sequence reversed.
- Your reverse span is reported next to your forward span, not combined with it. They measure different demands, and averaging them would produce a number that is harder to check rather than easier.
- The reverse span carries no band. Bands exist for the forward task, and inventing a second set for a phase we have no basis to band would be exactly the thing this page exists to avoid.
Exclusion rules
- An attempt where entry begins before the sequence has finished is void, and that length is presented once more.
- An attempt abandoned by navigating away is not scored; the result stands at the last completed length.
The bands
| Forward span | Band |
|---|---|
| 3 or fewer | Building |
| 4–5 | Retentive |
| 6–7 | Fluent |
| 8–9 | Deep Coder |
| 10 or more | Memory Architect |
These boundaries are a design decision, not an empirical finding. They are set from how the task is built, because we have no reference sample to set them from. When real data exists they will be revisited, and the methodology version will increment when they are. The norming ladder, and where we are on it, is published in full.
What we do with your answers
Nothing. The test runs entirely in your browser. Your digits, your attempts and your result are never sent to us and never stored. Closing the tab destroys them. The privacy notice covers this in full.