Play in your browser · Memory
Visual memory test
Tiles light up for about a second; tap the same ones back. Each level adds a tile and the grid grows, and three lives decide how far you get.
This test runs in your browser with JavaScript. Turn it on to play, or get Omni Brain for the full version.
How to play
- Press Start. A few tiles on the grid light up for about a second.
- When they go dark, tap the same tiles in any order. Each correct tap stays lit.
- Clear a level to get one more tile; the grid grows from 3×3 up to 7×7. A wrong tap costs a life, and two wrong taps repeat the level with a new pattern. When your three lives are gone, you see the level you reached.
What your score means
Your score is the level you reached. Level 1 asks for 3 tiles and every level adds one, so level 6 means holding 8 positions from a single one-second look. Under the score you also see how many levels you cleared and the most tiles you recalled in one go.
Focus, screen size and how rested you are all move the result, so compare yourself with yourself. If you stall at the same level, change how you look rather than trying harder: group the lit tiles into a shape, or name their positions in your head.
About the visual memory test
A visual memory test like this one asks you to hold a pattern in mind for a few seconds after it disappears. Psychologists call this visual-spatial working memory. In the working-memory model that Alan Baddeley and Graham Hitch proposed in 1974, it is the job of the visuospatial sketchpad, the part that keeps images and locations ready while you use them. Grids of lit or filled squares are a common way to measure it, because the load is easy to raise one step at a time until recall starts to slip. Practice makes you better at the task itself, and strategy helps a lot: three tiles that form an L or a diagonal are easier to keep than three separate points. That is why the game teaches grouping. In Omni Brain the same idea runs as Grid Recall, with difficulty that adapts to you as you play and a technique for turning cells into shapes.
Techniques from the app
- Group cells into shapes. Look for lines, corners and letters in the lit cells. Three cells that make an L are one thing to remember, not three.
- Say it in your head. Name positions while they are lit: “top-left, middle, bottom-right”. Words stick longer than a picture.
Train visual memory every day in Omni Brain
Grid Recall and many more short games, each with a technique you can use outside the app. Free every day.
Questions about the visual memory test
What does a visual memory test measure?
It measures visual-spatial working memory: how many locations you can hold in mind for a few seconds after they disappear. It is the same kind of memory you use to remember where things were on a page or a screen.
What is a good level?
This browser version has no official norm, so the best comparison is your own last result. Each level adds one tile, so going from level 5 to level 7 means holding two more positions at once.
How can I remember more tiles?
Group them. Look for lines, corners and letter shapes: three tiles that make an L are one thing to remember, not three. Naming positions in your head, such as top-left and centre, helps too.
Does the order of my taps matter?
No. Tap the lit tiles in any order: only the positions count. A wrong tap costs one of your three lives, and two in the same level repeat it with a new pattern.