N-Back Test

The n-back is a classic working-memory task, first described in 1958 [1]. Working memory is the small amount of information you can keep in mind and update from moment to moment. In a 2-back, you compare each square with the one two steps earlier, so you must keep the last two positions in mind and drop the oldest one with every new square. Brain-imaging studies show the task drives a network in the frontal and parietal lobes [2].

This is the same adaptive version as in the Helibrain app, with the squares placed on a grid (spatial n-back). The level changes with how well you do, in the style of the adaptive n-back used in working-memory research [3].

• You practise at 2-back with feedback, then start the real run at 2-back.
• Every round has 10 counted squares, 3 of them matches.
• Catch more than 90% of the matches with under 20% false taps and the level goes up. Catch fewer than 70% and it goes down.
• The first 3 rounds are guaranteed. After that, a weak round ends the test, and it stops after 6 rounds at most.

Your result is the level you climbed to: the highest level where you passed a round. Matches caught and false taps show how cleanly you got there. Each level up adds one more position to keep in mind.

There is no standard norm for this exact version, so compare with yourself. Expect your first few runs to improve just because the task gets familiar.

Not quite. Scores on the n-back line up only loosely with other working-memory tests, so it also measures things like attention control and quick recognition [4] [5]. That is one more reason to read a single result lightly.

Probably not. An early study reported gains in reasoning after n-back training [3], but a large meta-analysis later found that working-memory training improves the trained tasks and similar ones, not intelligence or other distant skills [6]. Use the test to see how you are doing, not as a brain workout.