Tower of London Test

Neuropsychologist Tim Shallice design di task for 1982 to study planning [1]. Every problem get smallest number of moves, and di task dey record whether you reach di target wit dat number, how many extra moves you need, and how long you think before your first move. E resemble Tower of Hanoi small, but di rules and problems no be di same.

Number of moves no be di only thing wey dey make problem hard. Problems wey leave di order of moves open for di target, or wey first make you move one ball comot for road, dey take people more time to plan, even when di number of moves na di same [2][3][4].

• Three pegs fit hold 3, 2 and 1 balls. Move one ball each time: na only ball wey dey top you fit move, and no put am on peg wey don full.
• Each problem dey show di target and di fewest moves wey e go take. Make di target match wit dat number of moves for perfect solve.
• 16 problems, from 2 to 6 moves, and dem dey get harder. Each one go end after 60 seconds or 20 moves.
• Tap ball, den tap peg wey you wan put am on, or drag am go there. For keyboard, keys 1, 2 and 3 dey pick up and put down ball.
• Small practice problem go come first (you fit skip am). Each run go paint di balls wit new colours, so second try go look new but e go still hard di same way.

We make our own set of problems. Computer search wey check all 36 positions of di balls confirm say di fewest moves for each problem correct. From 3 moves and up, every problem get only one shortest solution. Di targets mix di three shapes wey researchers dey change: all balls for one peg, two and one, and one for each peg [2].

• Solve am wit di fewest moves: na your main score, how many perfect solves you get.
• Extra moves: moves wey pass di fewest, for problems wey you solve.
• Thinking before di first move: how long you look before you touch ball. Researchers dey call am initial planning time.
• How you solve am: di part of your time wey you spend before di first move for di longer problems. Bigger part mean say you plan more of di solution for your head first.

For one study of 179 adults, people wey spend bigger part of their time planning before di first move tend to solve more problems wit di fewest moves [5]. Telling people make dem plan first help for one study [6], but e no help for another one, where people plan for longer but no do better for their moves [7]. So treat “how you solve am” as description of dis run, no be rule.

After enough people don play, your result go also show where you dey among other people wey play dis game, as one group: below typical, typical or above typical. Na group, no be exact rank, because one run of dis task fit only show roughly how you plan (see below). Di other players na people wey visit dis site, dem no be sample wey represent everybody.

Dem dey use Tower of London for research on planning and clinical assessment, but dis page na game, e no be clinical test. E no dey measure intelligence, and one run na just one snapshot: tiredness and di device wey you use dey change how you do.

For one study of 79 young adults wey do computer Tower of London two times, two weeks apart, their move scores for di two days agree only small-small (correlation of 0.15), but dem become faster to solve [9]. So take one result as rough guide, and look at several tries for different days instead of one number.