Working Memory
Glow Squares Game
Also called: spatial span game, block-tapping game for children and adults, memory for places game, visuospatial memory game
Measure how many squares players aged 6 and up recall on a 5 by 5 board, with and without distractors: some squares glow, the board waits, and players tap the squares that glowed.
4-7 minUntimed
Free to start: 10 free participants per account, then $0.99 per participant for academic research, or any yearly plan. Try it here first, with no account.
- Papers, 2021 to 2025
- 514
- Evidence grade
- B
- Registered clinical studies
- 181
Figures for the Corsi Block-Tapping Test, the published test this game is compared with.
How these are countedWhat it measures
Measures how many squares players aged 6 and up recall, with and without distractors, with an adult reading the screens aloud to children under 8.
Constructs
- Visuospatial short-term memory
- Visuospatial working memory
- Filtering out distractors
- Memory for places
Research uses
- Research on short-term memory for places, with and without distraction, in school-age children and adults
How the paradigm works
The Glow Squares Game measures how many squares a player holds in mind and taps back, with and without distractors, from ages 6 and up. It is a game in the family of the grid span tasks, in which a person sees some squares of a board marked, waits, and taps the squares that were marked. A board of 25 squares in 5 rows and 5 columns shows some squares glowing together for 1 second. The board stays plain for 1 second. On every second trial of a level, two other squares show a different picture for half a second during that wait. Then the player taps the squares that glowed, by touch, mouse or keys (Tab, then Enter or Space), and the trial ends after as many squares are marked as glowed. Each level adds one square, from 2 to 12, with 4 trials a level: clear, distractors, clear, distractors. A level with all 4 trials wrong ends the game, and so does level 12. The paper counts and grades on this page are those of the Corsi Block-Tapping Test, the published test the game is compared with, not the game's own.
More about the paradigm
The main score is the most squares recalled exactly in a clear trial. The distractor span, and the cost of the distractors (the clear span minus the distractor span), are scored beside it. Three practice trials come first, with the right squares ringed after each, and run once more when fewer than 2 are right. After the practice no trial gets feedback, and no screen gives a total or a grade.
The validation plan also compares the game with the Grid Pattern Span Task and with Change Detection, and with a reaction time check that should come out lower. Items shown together for 1 second, a blank second, recall by tapping, one more item after each success, and two distractors in the wait follow Brown and colleagues (2014), who used red circles on a 4 by 4 grid. Filtering out irrelevant items went with differences in working-memory capacity between people in McNab and Klingberg (2008). The 5 by 5 board of squares, the levels, the stop rule, the fades, the timing windows and the eight forms are ours.
Scores
- Clear Spancount
- The most squares recalled exactly in a clear trial, from 2 to 12: the highest level with a clear trial whose marks were exactly the squares that glowed. Empty when no clear trial was recalled exactly.
- Higher means more squares held and tapped back; compared within a study
- Distractor Spancount
- The most squares recalled exactly in a trial with distractors. Empty when no such trial was recalled exactly.
- Higher means more squares held and tapped back with two distractors in the wait
- Distraction Costcount
- The clear span minus the distractor span. Empty unless both are present.
- Informational; a positive value means the distractors lowered the span
- Clear Trials Recalledcount
- The scored clear trials whose marks were exactly the squares that glowed.
- Higher means more clear trials recalled
- Distractor Trials Recalledcount
- The scored trials with distractors whose marks were exactly the squares that glowed.
- Higher means more trials with distractors recalled
- Squares Rightcount
- The marks that fell on a square that glowed, over all scored trials.
- Informational; it credits a trial that was nearly right
- Distractors Markedcount
- The marks that fell on a distractor square, over the scored trials with distractors.
- Informational; more marks on distractors means more were taken in
- Levels Reachedcount
- The highest level whose squares reached the board, from 2 to 12.
- Informational; the game ends after a level with all 4 trials wrong
- Usable Trialscount
- Trials counted in the scores. Left out: a trial in which the tab was hidden, the window changed size, or a second finger or a palm touched the screen, and a trial whose display fell outside its window (the glow or the wait under 900 ms or over 1,300 ms, the distractors under 400 ms or over 700 ms).
- Quality check
- Share of Key Trials%
- The share of the scored trials whose first mark was made with a key (Enter or Space on a focused square) and not a tap or a click.
- Informational; the comparison of touch and keys reads this share within each look
- Share of Touch Trials%
- The share of the scored trials whose first mark was made by touch.
- Informational; the comparison of touch and keys reads this share within each look
Use and evidence
514 papers from 2021 to 2025 name this task in their title or abstract, up 46% compared with 2016 to 2020. That ranks it 53 of 632 test families in our census. These counts belong to the Corsi Block-Tapping Test, the published test this game is compared with. This game is a new measure, so its own reliability and norms come from use. See the counts for every test.
Show the numbers
| Year | Papers |
|---|---|
| 2025 | 122 |
| 2024 | 105 |
| 2023 | 116 |
| 2022 | 91 |
| 2021 | 80 |
| 2020 | 91 |
| 2019 | 69 |
| 2018 | 74 |
| 2017 | 57 |
| 2016 | 61 |
| 2015 | 46 |
| 2014 | 56 |
| 2013 | 31 |
| 2012 | 35 |
| 2011 | 23 |
| 2010 | 24 |
| 2009 | 22 |
| 2008 | 21 |
| 2007 | 19 |
| 2006 | 16 |
| 2005 | 16 |
| 2004 | 11 |
| 2003 | 10 |
| 2002 | 6 |
| 2001 | 15 |
| 2000 | 7 |
Use grade B
300 to 999 papers from 2021 to 2025.
Evidence grade B
At least 8 test-retest papers, and either 5 registered clinical studies or 150 reliability or validity papers.
- Papers on test-retest reliability
- 20
- Papers on reliability or validity
- 95
- Registered clinical studies using it as an outcome
- 181
Measured on ConductCognition
Pooled across the studies that feed our platform norms, by device group. A figure needs 50 or more people.
No pooled figure yet.
How the grades work
Use: A is 1,000 or more papers from 2021 to 2025, B 300 to 999, C 100 to 299, D 30 to 99 and E fewer than 30. Evidence: A means at least 25 papers report its test-retest reliability and at least 25 registered clinical studies use it as an outcome; B, at least 8 test-retest papers, and either 5 registered clinical studies or 150 reliability or validity papers; C, at least 2 test-retest papers, 30 reliability or validity papers or 3 registered clinical studies; D, little published measurement evidence found. The counts measure use. They include every paper that names the task in its title or abstract. Grades describe the published research on the Corsi Block-Tapping Test, the published test this game is compared with, not the game's own.
Source: ConductCognition test census 0.44.0, counted 31 October 2026 from OpenAlex and ClinicalTrials.gov.
Task design
The trial sequence as the test runs in ConductCognition.
- Board
- A board of 25 squares in 5 rows and 5 columns, drawn in code with no picture file. Each square is at least 60 px wide and the gap between squares is 4 px, so the board is 316 px wide on a 360 px phone and 496 px on a tablet or a computer.
- Trials
- Some squares glow together for 1,000 ms, fading in and out over 100 ms at each end. The board then stays plain for 1,000 ms. The player taps the squares that glowed, and the trial ends 500 ms after as many squares are marked as glowed. A tap before the board answers marks nothing and is counted.
- Distractors
- On every second trial of a level, two other squares show a different picture, a pale blue square with three stripes, from 250 to 750 ms of the wait. The player ignores them, and they never sit on a glowing square.
- Levels
- Levels run from 2 to 12 squares, one more each level, with 4 trials a level in this order: clear, distractors, clear, distractors. A level with all 4 trials wrong ends the game, and so does level 12. A rest screen follows level 7. The game takes 4 to 7 minutes.
- Practice
- Three practice trials come first: one square, two squares, and two squares with distractors. The right squares are ringed for 1,500 ms after each. The practice runs once more when fewer than 2 of the 3 are right. Practice is never scored.
- Forms
- 8 forms: one set of 44 trials under the 8 rotations and reflections of the square, so every form keeps the same distances and neighbors. No set holds a whole row, column or long diagonal, and no set is mapped onto itself by a rotation or reflection. Each person gets the forms in an order drawn once for them, and each session takes the next form.
- Looks
- The game look adds a window scene at the edges of the screen, and the plain look draws the same board on white. Squares, colors and places are the same in both. The glow and the distractor differ in pattern and in lightness, and every pair of the five colors of the board is at least 20 apart on the CIEDE2000 scale in normal vision and in simulated protan, deutan and tritan vision. The researcher chooses the look for a study; the default is the game look.
- Taps
- The first tap on a square marks it. A second tap on a marked square changes nothing, and one within 300 ms of its mark is counted. Tab and then Enter or Space mark a focused square, unless the key was held down from before the board answered. A trial is left out of the scores when the tab was hidden or the window changed size during it, a second finger or a palm touched the screen, or a display was shown outside its window: 900 to 1,300 ms for the glow and for the wait, and 400 to 700 ms for the distractors.
- Age and reader
- For ages 6 and up. An adult sits beside a child under 8, reads each screen aloud and does not point to squares. In older-adult mode the words and the buttons are 1.2 times larger; the board, the timing and the scoring do not change.
- Scores
- The most squares recalled exactly in a clear trial (the main score), the same with distractors, and the difference between the two. Also the trials recalled, the squares right, the marks on distractor squares, the level reached and the number of usable trials. The share of trials started with a key and by touch is also kept, so the two can be compared. No percentile is computed.
The design follows the grid span of Brown and colleagues (2014), who showed red circles on a 4 by 4 grid for 1 second, then a blank second, and had players tap where the circles were, with one more circle after each success and, in the distraction version, two other circles in the blank. Distractors lowered the level players reached. Filtering out irrelevant items went with differences in working memory capacity between people in McNab and Klingberg (2008). The 5 by 5 board of squares, the levels, the stop rule, the fades, the timing windows, the eight forms and the looks are our own. This game is a new measure for ages 6 and up: its reliability and norms come from use, the figures published in those studies are not its own, and it computes no percentiles.
Quality checks
Each session is marked valid, needs review or invalid, with the reason, before you see its scores.
Scored rows: glow_squares_game test trials, up to 44 (levels of 2 to 12 squares, 4 trials a level), leaving out a trial with the tab hidden, the window resized, or a second finger or a palm on the screen, and a trial whose glow, wait or distractors were shown for a time outside their windows (900 to 1,300 ms, 900 to 1,300 ms, 400 to 700 ms). A run that does not end after level 12 or after a level with all 4 trials wrong, or whose levels lack one of their 4 rows, is invalid. No clear trial of level 2 recalled exactly, half or more of the scored trials with no mark on a square that glowed, or half or more of the first marks under 200 ms flags it for review.
Why these rules
A span is the most squares a player can hold and tap back exactly, so a low span is a result and is not flagged, as in the Corsi Block-Tapping Test (the platform's span family). The game ends after a level with all 4 trials wrong or after level 12, so a run that stops anywhere else, or that lacks rows of a level, was cut off or lost rows and is not read as a span (ours). A player who cannot recall 2 squares may not have understood the game. A player who marks no square that glowed in half the trials, or answers in under 200 ms (faster than a simple visual reaction, the platform's untimed-choice rule), may not have watched the squares (ours). A run that holds two forms cannot be read against one table and is not scored.
No percentile. Scores and quality flags only.
Running this test
Settings you can change
| Setting | Standard | Allowed |
|---|---|---|
| Look | Game | Game, Plain |
Every plan can change the look, which never changes how a result is scored.
Need a setting this test does not have?
Devices and languages
- Untimed test: runs on desktops, laptops, tablets and phones. Participant devices
- Languages: English, Spanish, French, German, Italian, Portuguese (Brazil), Chinese (Simplified) and Japanese.
- Available on: Every plan, including the free plan.
- No percentile. Scores and quality flags only. How norms work
- Recruiting online? See the setup guides for Prolific, Sona Systems, CloudResearch Connect and Qualtrics.
Cite and describe
Participants completed the Glow Squares Game in a web browser (ConductCognition task version 1.0.0, scoring version 1.0.0; Brown and colleagues, 2014), with the standard settings (look: Game). The main score was clear span (the most squares recalled exactly in a clear trial, from 2 to 12: the highest level with a clear trial whose marks were exactly the squares that glowed).
ConductCognition versions: task version 1.0.0, scoring version 1.0.0. Every export records the versions each session used, for a methods section.
- Brown, H. R., Zeidman, P., Smittenaar, P., Adams, R. A., McNab, F., Rutledge, R. B., & Dolan, R. J. (2014). Crowdsourcing for Cognitive Science: The Utility of Smartphones. PLoS ONE, 9(7), e100662. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0100662The task this game adapts: items shown together for 1 second, a blank second, recall by tapping, one more item after each success, and two distractors in the blank. Distractors lowered the level reached, in a sample of 8,987 adults (full text read).
- McNab, F., & Klingberg, T. (2008). Prefrontal cortex and basal ganglia control access to working memory. Nature Neuroscience, 11(1), 103-107. https://doi.org/10.1038/nn2024Filtering out irrelevant items went with differences in working memory capacity between people (abstract read).
Source papers
Questions
How long does the Glow Squares Game take?
About 4 to 7 minutes, as listed in the test library.
What device does a participant need?
Untimed test: runs on desktops, laptops, tablets and phones. The browser must be Chrome, Edge, Firefox or Safari.
What scores does it produce?
Clear Span, Distractor Span, Distraction Cost, Clear Trials Recalled, Distractor Trials Recalled, Squares Right, Distractors Marked, Levels Reached, Usable Trials, Share of Key Trials and Share of Touch Trials. Each session is also marked valid, needs review or invalid, with the reason.
How widely is the Corsi Block-Tapping Test used in research?
These counts belong to the Corsi Block-Tapping Test, the published test this game is compared with. This game is a new measure, so its own reliability and norms come from use. 514 papers from 2021 to 2025 name the task in their title or abstract, up 46% compared with 2016 to 2020. That ranks it 53 of 632 test families in the ConductCognition test census (use grade B). Source: ConductCognition test census 0.44.0, counted 31 October 2026 from OpenAlex and ClinicalTrials.gov.
How much reliability evidence does the Corsi Block-Tapping Test have?
These counts belong to the Corsi Block-Tapping Test, the published test this game is compared with. This game is a new measure, so its own reliability and norms come from use. In the published research, 20 papers report the task's test-retest reliability and 181 registered clinical studies use it as an outcome (evidence grade B in the ConductCognition test census).
Does it report a percentile?
No. Scores and quality flags only.
Which settings can a researcher change?
Look (Game, Plain). Every plan can change the look, which never changes how a result is scored.
Which languages can participants use?
Participants can take this test in English, Spanish, French, German, Italian, Portuguese (Brazil), Chinese (Simplified) and Japanese. English is on every plan, and the other languages come with yearly plans. Have a native speaker read the machine-translated text before launch.
Is this a clinical test?
No. ConductCognition is for research use only. It runs, scores and exports the test; clinical interpretation is outside the platform.
Every test: the full test list.
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