Episodic Memory
Survival Processing Task
Also called: survival processing paradigm, survival processing advantage, survival recall advantage, adaptive memory task
Rate words for surviving in grasslands or for moving home, then recall them in a surprise test: words rated for survival are recalled better.
9-12 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
- 33
- Evidence grade
- D
- Registered clinical studies
- 0
What it measures
Measures the memory benefit of thinking about survival. Participants rate words for their relevance to being stranded in grasslands or to moving home, then type the words they remember in a recall test they were not told about.
Constructs
- Adaptive memory
- Incidental encoding
- Free recall
- Episodic memory
Research uses
- Adaptive memory and encoding research
- Aging and memory research
- Research comparing ways of processing words
How the paradigm works
The Survival Processing Task measures the memory benefit of thinking about survival, the survival processing advantage of Nairne, Thompson and Pandeirada (2007). Participants imagine two situations in turn and rate words for their relevance to each, choosing a number from 1 (not relevant at all) to 5 (extremely relevant) while each word stays on the screen for 5 seconds. In one situation they are stranded in the grasslands of a foreign land without basic supplies and need food, water and a safe place to shelter; in the other they are moving to a new home in a foreign land. The 32 words come in four sets of 8, the two situations alternating by set in an order drawn for each session, so each situation rates 16 words; two practice words open each situation. Nothing is said about memory. After 2 minutes of true-or-false arithmetic, a recall test the participant was not told about asks for every word rated, typed in any order on a visible timer, and a last question asks whether a memory test was expected.
More about the paradigm
The main score is the survival recall advantage: the share of survival-rated words recalled minus the share of moving-rated words recalled. In the source studies, words rated for survival were recalled better than the same words rated for moving, pleasantness or personal relevance, with each person rating for one situation or for both (Nairne et al. 2007, 2008), and a meta-analysis found medium to large effects (Scofield, Buchanan and Kostic 2018). The words are concrete nouns written for this task in each of the eight app languages; each session deals them to the two situations at random, so across sessions every word is rated for both. With 16 words for each situation, one person's difference is noisy and is best used to compare groups. Scores support research and do not diagnose.
Scores
- Survival Recall Advantage%
- Share of the words rated for survival that were recalled, minus the share of the words rated for moving that were recalled.
- Higher means more benefit from survival rating
- Survival Words Recalled%
- Share of the 16 words rated for the grasslands situation that were recalled.
- Higher is better
- Moving Words Recalled%
- Share of the 16 words rated for the moving situation that were recalled.
- Higher is better
- Mean Rating, Survivalscore
- Mean relevance rating, 1 to 5, of the words rated for the grasslands situation.
- Context for the recall scores
- Mean Rating, Movingscore
- Mean relevance rating, 1 to 5, of the words rated for the moving situation.
- Context for the recall scores
- Words Recalledcount
- Task words recalled, of 32.
- Higher is better
- Intrusionscount
- Typed entries that name no rated word.
- Lower is better
- Unrated Wordscount
- Task words not rated within their 5 seconds.
- Lower is better
- Expected a Memory Testflag
- 1 when the participant expected a memory test, 0 when not.
- 0 keeps the recall incidental
- Delay Arithmetic Accuracy%
- Share of the true-or-false arithmetic answered correctly in the delay.
- Shows the delay task was done
Use and evidence
33 papers from 2021 to 2025 name this task in their title or abstract, down 15% compared with 2016 to 2020. That ranks it 350 of 495 test families in our census. See the counts for every test.
Show the numbers
| Year | Papers |
|---|---|
| 2025 | 6 |
| 2024 | 10 |
| 2023 | 3 |
| 2022 | 7 |
| 2021 | 7 |
| 2020 | 8 |
| 2019 | 12 |
| 2018 | 5 |
| 2017 | 6 |
| 2016 | 8 |
| 2015 | 7 |
| 2014 | 10 |
| 2013 | 14 |
| 2012 | 10 |
| 2011 | 10 |
| 2010 | 4 |
| 2009 | 1 |
| 2008 | 2 |
| 2007 | 0 |
| 2006 | 0 |
| 2005 | 0 |
| 2004 | 0 |
| 2003 | 0 |
| 2002 | 0 |
| 2001 | 0 |
| 2000 | 0 |
Use grade D
30 to 99 papers from 2021 to 2025.
Evidence grade D
Little published measurement evidence found.
- Papers on test-retest reliability
- 0
- Papers on reliability or validity
- 4
- Registered clinical studies using it as an outcome
- 0
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 this task, not ConductCognition's version of it.
Source: ConductCognition test census 0.22.0, counted 2 November 2026 from OpenAlex and ClinicalTrials.gov.
Task design
The trial sequence as the test runs in ConductCognition.
- Rating
- 32 words in 4 sets of 8, each for 5 seconds with a 1 to 5 relevance scale (1 not relevant at all, 5 extremely relevant), rated or not, and a 500 ms blank between words.
- Situations
- Stranded in the grasslands of a foreign land, needing food, water and a safe place to shelter, or moving to a new home in a foreign land. The two alternate by set, in an order drawn for each session, so each rates 16 words. Nothing is said about memory.
- Delay
- 120 seconds (standard; 30 to 300) of true-or-false arithmetic.
- Recall
- A recall the participant was not told about: every word rated, typed one at a time in any order, for up to 300 seconds (standard; 120 to 600) on a visible timer, with a Done button. Then one question: was a memory test expected?
- Spelling
- Case, accents and punctuation are ignored, and plurals and other spellings count. In languages written in letters, one wrong, missing, extra or swapped letter is accepted in words of 4 or more letters unless the answer is another word of the language. In Japanese, kanji, hiragana and katakana count; in Chinese, simplified and traditional characters.
- Scores
- The survival recall advantage: the share of survival-rated words recalled minus the share of moving-rated words recalled (Nairne, Thompson and Pandeirada 2007). Recall and mean ratings for each situation are also reported.
- Practice
- 2 practice words before each situation's first set, then the number rated in time.
The words were written for this task in eight languages; no published survival processing list is used. The grasslands situation keeps to food, water and shelter.
Quality checks
Each session is marked valid, needs review or invalid, with the reason, before you see its scores.
Scored rows: survival_processing_rating rows of the 32 task words from the scored run, one 1 to 5 rating each with no correct answer, with the recall, delay arithmetic and expectation rows of the same run. Fewer rating rows than planned invalidates. The same rating on 95% of 12 or more words is flagged. Ratings under 200 ms on at least half of 4 or more words invalidate, and any is flagged. More than a quarter of the words left unrated is flagged. A recall that was not saved, a recall with no rated word, more typed words from outside the list than rated words (with at least 6 of them) and blocked pastes are flagged. A participant who expected a memory test is flagged. No arithmetic answered in the delay, or delay arithmetic at or below chance over at least 10 answers, is flagged. A hidden tab withholds the percentile.
Why these rules
There is no correct option to compare with chance, so accuracy is not judged against chance. The ratings make the words processed for each situation; the same rating for nearly every word, or many words left unrated, means the situations may not have been used. An answer under 200 ms is faster than a simple visual reaction, so it cannot reflect the item. Following response-time effort screening for untimed tests (Wise and Kong 2005), the session is invalid only when at least half the answers are that fast. The recall is incidental: the participant is not told it will come (Nairne, Thompson and Pandeirada 2007), so an expected test is flagged. A recall with no rated word gives a difference of 0 that may only mean the recall was skipped. Skipping the delay arithmetic means part of the procedure may not have been followed. A hidden tab lets the study, delay or response timers run without the participant, so a percentile is withheld after one.
No percentile. Scores and quality flags only.
Running this test
Settings you can change
| Setting | Standard | Allowed |
|---|---|---|
| Arithmetic before the recall (seconds) | 120 | 30 to 300 |
| Recall time (seconds) | 300 | 120 to 600 |
Yearly plans can change settings within these limits. Free and pay-as-you-go studies use the standard settings.
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 Survival Processing Task in a web browser (ConductCognition task version 1.0.0, scoring version 1.0.0; Nairne, Thompson & Pandeirada, 2007; Nairne, Pandeirada & Thompson, 2008), with the standard settings (arithmetic before the recall (seconds): 120; recall time (seconds): 300). The main score was survival recall advantage (share of the words rated for survival that were recalled, minus the share of the words rated for moving that were recalled).
ConductCognition versions: task version 1.0.0, scoring version 1.0.0. Every export records the versions each session used, for a methods section.
- Nairne, J. S., Thompson, S. R., & Pandeirada, J. N. S. (2007). Adaptive memory: Survival processing enhances retention. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 33(2), 263-273. https://doi.org/10.1037/0278-7393.33.2.263The procedure and the within-person comparison with moving.
- Nairne, J. S., Pandeirada, J. N. S., & Thompson, S. R. (2008). Adaptive memory: The comparative value of survival processing. Psychological Science, 19(2), 176-180. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9280.2008.02064.x
- Weinstein, Y., Bugg, J. M., & Roediger, H. L. (2008). Can the survival recall advantage be explained by basic memory processes? Memory & Cognition, 36(5), 913-919. https://doi.org/10.3758/MC.36.5.913
- Scofield, J. E., Buchanan, E. M., & Kostic, B. (2018). A meta-analysis of the survival-processing advantage in memory. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 25(3), 997-1012. https://doi.org/10.3758/s13423-017-1346-0Effect sizes across studies.
Source papers
- Nairne JS, Thompson SR, Pandeirada JNS (2007). Adaptive memory: Survival processing enhances retention. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 33(2):263-273.Paradigm source
- Scofield JE, Buchanan EM, Kostic B (2018). A meta-analysis of the survival-processing advantage in memory. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 25(3):997-1012.Paradigm source
Questions
How long does the Survival Processing Task take?
About 9 to 12 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?
Survival Recall Advantage, Survival Words Recalled, Moving Words Recalled, Mean Rating, Survival, Mean Rating, Moving, Words Recalled, Intrusions, Unrated Words, Expected a Memory Test and Delay Arithmetic Accuracy. Each session is also marked valid, needs review or invalid, with the reason.
How widely is the Survival Processing Task used in research?
33 papers from 2021 to 2025 name it in their title or abstract, down 15% compared with 2016 to 2020. That ranks it 350 of 495 test families in the ConductCognition test census (use grade D). Source: ConductCognition test census 0.22.0, counted 2 November 2026 from OpenAlex and ClinicalTrials.gov.
How much reliability evidence does the Survival Processing Task have?
In the published research, 0 papers report its test-retest reliability and 0 registered clinical studies use it as an outcome (evidence grade D in the ConductCognition test census).
Does it report a percentile?
No. Scores and quality flags only.
Which settings can a researcher change?
Arithmetic before the recall (seconds) (30 to 300) and recall time (seconds) (120 to 600). Settings can be changed on yearly plans; free and pay-as-you-go studies use the standard settings.
Which languages can participants use?
Participants can take this test in English, Spanish, French, German, Italian, Portuguese (Brazil), Chinese (Simplified) and Japanese, with its words in the same language. 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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