N-Back · Dual N-Back Trainer
Squares flash on a 3×3 grid one at a time. Press Match (or spacebar) whenever the current square is in the same position as the square two flashes ago. Do nothing if it isn't a match. We score both your hits and your restraint.
How to play N-Back
Squares flash on a 3×3 grid one at a time. Press Match (or spacebar) whenever the current square is in the same position as the square two flashes ago. Do nothing if it isn't a match. We score both your hits and your restraint.
What it measures
N-back is the gold-standard lab task for working-memory updating — holding recent items in mind, comparing them, and refreshing the set as new ones arrive. It's far harder than a simple span test because the goalposts move every trial.
Honest note: N-back became famous after a 2008 study linked it to fluid-intelligence gains. That finding has been hard to replicate. Our honest line: N-back makes you better at N-back. Beyond that we promise nothing.
What's a good score?
On a 2-back, above 80% accuracy is solid and above 90% is excellent — but only if you're not spamming the button. The percentile we show is an estimate based on typical distributions, not a clinical norm.
FAQ
Why is this harder than Echo?
Echo recalls a fixed sequence; N-back makes you continuously update what you hold in mind as items stream in.
Does pressing constantly help?
No — false alarms lower your accuracy just as misses do.
Keep training
N-Back is the most-studied working-memory task in cognitive science. Here’s the honest picture: training reliably improves the task itself and closely related memory tests (“near transfer”). The bigger claim — that it raises IQ or makes you broadly smarter (“far transfer”) — is not supported by the best meta-analyses. We still think it’s worth doing: working memory is the mental scratchpad behind focus, reasoning and mental math.
Who benefits most — no medical claims, just where the research points
Working memory underpins concentration, reading comprehension and juggling tasks — and near-transfer gains here are reliable.
Working-memory training produces consistent short-term gains on memory tasks, though benefits don’t broadly generalise — a practice tool, not a treatment.
These states are linked to reduced working-memory control; training has been studied to ease rumination, with mixed results.