How the test works
Choose one or three lives and press Start. The screen goes dark and shows a grid of nine tiles. After a short pause the tiles light up one after another: each stays lit for half a second, with a quarter of a second of darkness before the next. Then the title changes to "Your turn" and you tap the same tiles in the same order, on the screen or with the keys 1 to 9.
- A right sequence shows "Right" for a moment and then plays again with one more tile at the end. The first round has one tile, the second two, and so on.
- A wrong tap ends the round at once. The tile that should have come next lights up and your tap is marked with ×. With lives left you press Next and try the same length again, with the same start and a new last tile; without, the run ends.
- A hidden tab while the sequence plays does not cost a life. The same sequence simply plays again, because tiles you could not see test nothing.
At the end, See result closes the screen and the result card shows the longest sequence you repeated and your record for that lives option on this device. Esc or the × button leaves earlier without a result, because a run you stopped yourself does not say where your memory runs out. The test does not time your taps: take as long as you need, only the order counts.
What the result means
The test measures visuospatial working memory, the part of short-term memory that keeps track of where things were and in which order. Psychologists call the classic version the Corsi block-tapping test, after Philip Corsi, who described it in 1972 as the spatial counterpart of the digit span. It is still used in memory research and in clinical assessment, usually with nine blocks placed irregularly on a board.
This version is easier to rehearse than the clinical one. The grid is regular, so a sequence can be read as a path or a shape, and each round repeats the previous sequence instead of starting from scratch. That is why results here tend to be higher than the five or six positions typical in the Corsi test. As a rough guide:
- Four or fewer. Below the usual range. Tiredness, distraction or a first try are the common reasons.
- Five to eight. A common result on a first try.
- Nine to twelve. Good. Most people who get here have found a way to hold the sequence as a whole.
- Thirteen or more. Very good, and almost always the result of a deliberate strategy.
One run is noisy: a sequence that jumps back and forth across the grid is much harder than one that walks around its edge. Several runs, or the three-lives option, give a steadier picture.
How to get a better score
Do not try to remember positions one by one. Watch the whole sequence as a path and give the moves a shape: a corner, a diagonal, a zigzag back to the middle. Some people name the tiles silently (top left, centre, bottom right), which turns the sequence into words and brings in your verbal memory as well. Keep your eyes on the centre of the grid so every tile is in view without moving them, and start tapping right away, while the path is still fresh. On a phone, keep the thumb that taps away from the grid while the tiles play, so your own hand does not hide a tile.
When to take a low result seriously
This is a quick self-test for curiosity and practice, not a medical assessment. A low score on one evening says more about the evening than about your memory: sleep, stress, alcohol and simple boredom all lower it. If you or someone close to you notice lasting problems in daily life, such as getting lost on familiar routes or forgetting where things were put, talk to a doctor. A proper assessment looks at far more than one test and can find causes that are often treatable.
Frequently asked questions
What is a good score on the sequence memory test?
There is no official norm for this exact format, but as a rough guide five to eight tiles is common on a first try, nine to twelve is good, and results well beyond that usually come from a strategy such as tracing the sequence as a shape. The classic Corsi block test, where the blocks are scattered and every trial is a new sequence, puts typical adults at around five to six positions.
Does the sequence change every round?
No, after a right answer the same sequence plays again from the start with one new tile at the end, as in the Simon game. You only have to add one position to what you already hold, but you must still repeat the whole sequence. After a mistake with lives left you try the same length again: the sequence starts the same, and only its last tile is new.
Can I use the keyboard instead of tapping?
Yes. The keys 1 to 9 on the top row are the tiles row by row from the top left, like a phone keypad, and the numpad keys match the grid by position, with 7 8 9 on the top row. A key held down taps only once. Tapping and keys can be mixed in one run.
Why do tiles never light twice in a row?
The same tile twice in a row would look like one long flash with a blink in the middle, and the test would turn into counting blinks rather than remembering positions. A tile can still come back later in the sequence, and in longer sequences it often does.
Is my record saved or sent anywhere?
Only your best length for each lives option is kept, in this browser's local storage on this device. The sequences, your taps and your results never leave the device and there is no leaderboard. Clearing site data removes the record, and a private window starts without one.