Measured in sequence length ยท higher is better
Sequence Memory Test
Watch the pattern, then repeat it. One step longer every round.
Before you start
The median on mouse is 9 steps. Run the test and we will place you against it.
Compared against
Tapping is slightly slower than clicking, which costs a little on longer sequences. Ranked separately.
The other device classes
Trackpad
Touchscreen
Curve is a fitted baseline plus 0 first attempts recorded here. The baseline is a curve, not a sample: no part of it is a real person. Baseline is an estimate: centred on the span usually reported for this style of pattern repetition task. No published dataset was found for it. Per-device offsets are extrapolated, not measured. The baseline is dropped once a device class holds 5,000 real first attempts. See the full distribution.
Repeat the pattern
Squares light up one at a time. Click them back in the same order. The sequence grows by one step every round.
Understanding your score
| Band | steps | What it means |
|---|---|---|
| Exceptional | 16 and above | Rare. Almost always deliberate grouping. |
| Very good | 13 to 15 | Well above average. |
| Good | 10 to 12 | Above the middle. |
| Average | 7 to 9 | Where most results land. |
| Below average | 5 to 6 | Usually attention rather than capacity. |
| Low | 4 and below | Watch the whole pattern before starting to answer. |
Order is the hard part
This is the same task as the electronic memory game that sold in the millions in the late 1970s, and it is hard for the same reason: remembering which squares lit is easy, remembering the order is not.
Sequential memory is a different system from the spatial memory the visual memory test uses. People who do well at one are often unremarkable at the other, which is why both exist here.
Strategies that work
Group the sequence. Three groups of three is far easier to hold than nine separate steps, and the grouping does not have to be even.
Give it a rhythm. Sequences held as a beat survive better than sequences held as a list, which is the same reason phone numbers are said in groups.
Trace the path. Many people convert the sequence into a shape drawn across the grid, turning an ordered list into a single remembered gesture.
Watch the whole pattern before you begin answering. Starting to plan your reply during the demonstration is the most common way to lose a round you could have won.
Where the sequence is actually stored
Ordered sequences live in a different part of working memory from static patterns. Position information decays faster than identity information, which is why people so often reproduce the right squares in the wrong order rather than forgetting a square entirely.
The failure mode is diagnostic. If you tap the right squares but scramble the order, you are running out of ordering capacity and grouping will help. If you forget squares entirely, you are running out of attention during the demonstration, and the fix is to stop planning your answer while the pattern is still playing.
The middle of a long sequence is the weakest part. First and last steps benefit from primacy and recency; step five of nine has neither, and that is where most runs break.
What the score does not mean
A long sequence span is a narrow skill. It correlates modestly with other working memory measures and barely at all with the kinds of memory people actually worry about, such as remembering names, appointments, or where they put something.
Those are long-term and prospective memory, different systems with different failure modes. Someone can hold a fourteen step sequence and still walk into a room having forgotten why. The two are not in tension; they are unrelated.
What a sudden drop in your own sequence span can indicate is state rather than ability. Fatigue and stress both compress it noticeably, and they compress it before you notice any subjective difference.
Questions
- Why do I get the squares right but the order wrong?
- Because order and identity are stored differently, and order decays faster. It means you are at your ordering limit rather than your capacity limit, and grouping the sequence into two or three chunks is the fix.
- What is a good sequence memory score?
- Around 8 or 9 steps is typical. Above 12 is well above average. Past 16 is rare and generally involves grouping the sequence into chunks rather than holding each step separately.
- Why is this harder than remembering the same squares without order?
- Because order is extra information. Storing which squares lit is a set; storing the sequence is a set plus an arrangement, and the arrangement costs as much as the set does.
- Does practice help?
- Your score improves quickly for a few sessions as you find a grouping strategy, then flattens. The gain is technique, not capacity, and it does not transfer to other kinds of memory.