Working Memory
Swap Spotter Game
Also called: color and shape binding game, visual memory game, change spotting game
Measure how well older adults keep colors with their shapes: three shapes show for 2 seconds, then come back in new places, and the player says whether they are the same or changed, scored as A prime.
5-7 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
- 161
- Evidence grade
- C
- Registered clinical studies
- 6
Figures for the Change Detection test, the published test this game is compared with.
How these are countedWhat it measures
A short memory game for research on short-term memory for colors and shapes in older adults. Three shapes show for 2 seconds, then come back in new places, and the player taps Same or Changed. In one block a change is a new shape, in the other two shapes have swapped colors. A color check comes first. The score is how well swaps are told from repeats. It is a raw research measure with no percentile.
Constructs
- Visual working memory
- Short-term memory for colors and shapes
- Feature binding
Research uses
- Research on short-term memory for colors and shapes in older adults
How the paradigm works
The Swap Spotter Game is a short memory game for research on short-term memory for colors and shapes in older adults. Three different shapes show on a grey grid for 2 seconds, the screen is blank for about a second, and the shapes come back in new places. The player taps Same or Changed, with no time limit. A first block uses black shapes, and a change brings in two new shapes. A second block uses colored shapes, and a change swaps the colors of two shapes, so the player has to remember which color went with which shape. The design follows the shape and color-shape binding tasks of Parra and colleagues (2010, Brain) and the later study of Norton and colleagues (2020), in which three polygons showed for 2 seconds, a blank lasted 900 ms and the second array stayed until the answer, in blocks of 32 trials with half changed. The shapes, the six colors, the grey, the grid, the forms and the words here are our own.
More about the paradigm
The paper counts and grades on this page are those of the Change Detection test, the published test the game is compared with, not the game's own. A color check comes first: each of 6 trials shows a color and 6 shapes in the 6 colors, and the player taps the shape with that color. It is passed with all 6 right in a round, in at most 2 rounds. A session that does not pass it ends there and is recorded as not measurable, not scored. The six colors keep a CIEDE2000 distance of at least 20 from each other and from the grey in normal vision and under three simulations of color vision, one of which stands in for the yellowing of older eyes. Each block opens with a practice of 4 trials with feedback, which runs once more when fewer than 3 are right, and then has 32 trials, 16 of them changes. Each session takes one of 12 alternate forms, drawn in the same way for every participant and taken in an order drawn once for each: a reload keeps its form, a missed visit skips none, and no form comes back until all 12 are used. A form's scores are pooled with the others' only after first sessions show the forms are equally hard.
Scores
- Binding Accuracy (A Prime)score
- A prime over the scored trials of the color block: how well swaps of colors between two shapes are called Changed and repeats are called Same. 0.5 is chance and 1 is perfect. Empty when the color check was not passed.
- Higher means colors were kept with their shapes more often; compared within a study
- Shape Accuracy (A Prime)score
- A prime over the scored trials of the shape block: how well new shapes are called Changed and repeats are called Same.
- Context for the main score
- Binding Costscore
- The shape block's A prime minus the color block's A prime.
- Higher means colors were kept with their shapes less well than the shapes themselves; informational
- Usable Trialstrials
- Test trials counted in the scores, out of 64. Left out: trials the screen was left during, trials when the window changed size or turned, trials with a second finger or a palm on the screen, and trials whose shapes or blank showed for too long or too short a time.
- Quality check
Use and evidence
161 papers from 2021 to 2025 name this task in their title or abstract, down 22% compared with 2016 to 2020. That ranks it 180 of 582 test families in our census. These counts belong to the Change Detection 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 | 37 |
| 2024 | 33 |
| 2023 | 27 |
| 2022 | 34 |
| 2021 | 30 |
| 2020 | 30 |
| 2019 | 47 |
| 2018 | 40 |
| 2017 | 48 |
| 2016 | 41 |
| 2015 | 41 |
| 2014 | 50 |
| 2013 | 52 |
| 2012 | 47 |
| 2011 | 49 |
| 2010 | 93 |
| 2009 | 27 |
| 2008 | 18 |
| 2007 | 12 |
| 2006 | 5 |
| 2005 | 14 |
| 2004 | 11 |
| 2003 | 8 |
| 2002 | 7 |
| 2001 | 2 |
| 2000 | 1 |
Use grade C
100 to 299 papers from 2021 to 2025.
Evidence grade C
At least 2 test-retest papers, 30 reliability or validity papers or 3 registered clinical studies.
- Papers on test-retest reliability
- 3
- Papers on reliability or validity
- 31
- Registered clinical studies using it as an outcome
- 6
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.
Note on the counts: also a remote sensing term, so the search phrases are narrow.
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 Change Detection test, the published test this game is compared with, not the game's own.
Source: ConductCognition test census 0.39.0, counted 31 October 2026 from OpenAlex and ClinicalTrials.gov.
Task design
The trial sequence as the test runs in ConductCognition.
- Shapes
- Eight polygons, a convex one and a concave one of each corner count from 5 to 8, drawn filled with no outline on one neutral grey grid. Three different shapes are on the grid at a time, each in its own cell of three rows by three columns. Both looks draw every shape in the same color on the same grey, with no tile under the grid; the game look adds only a soft background outside it.
- Colors
- Six colors and black. Every pair of colors, and each color and black against the grey, is at least 20 apart on the CIEDE2000 scale in normal vision and under three simulations of color vision, one of which stands in for the yellowing of older eyes.
- Color check
- First, 6 trials: a color swatch and 6 shapes in the 6 colors, and the player taps the shape with that color. All 6 right in a round passes it, in at most 2 rounds. A session that does not pass it ends there and is recorded as not measurable, not scored.
- Blocks
- Two blocks of 32 trials, 16 of them changes: first black shapes, where a change brings in two new shapes, then colored shapes, where a change swaps the colors of two shapes. Each block opens with a practice of 4 trials with feedback, which runs once more when fewer than 3 are right.
- Trial
- The three shapes show for 2,000 ms, the grid is empty for 900 ms, and the shapes come back in new places until the player taps Same or Changed. The first tap on a button answers, and a later tap changes nothing. Every shape is at least 72 px and each button at least 64 px tall, laid out from the window before each trial.
- Forms
- 12 alternate forms of 64 trials, each with the same counts: every shape in 12 study arrays of a block and every color in 16 arrays of the colored block. Each participant gets the forms in an order drawn once for them, and each session takes the next form after the sessions they began before it.
- Scores
- A prime of the colored block (the main score), A prime of the black block, their difference and the number of usable trials. A trial is left out when the screen was left, the window changed size or turned, a second finger or a palm touched the screen, or the shapes or the blank showed for too long or too short a time.
- Devices
- Desktops, tablets and phones of at least 360 by 640, with no time limit on an answer. In older-adult mode the words and the two buttons are 20% larger, and the shapes, the grid and the timings do not change. Keep each participant on one device class at every visit.
The design follows the shape and color-shape binding tasks of Parra and colleagues (2010) and the later study of Norton and colleagues (2020); the shapes, colors, grid, forms, words and looks are our own. This is a new measure for research with older adults: its reliability and norms come from use, the figures published in those studies are not its own, and it computes no percentiles. A practice visit before the baseline is advised, and for a retest 7 to 28 days later, add a second visit to the same study.
Quality checks
Each session is marked valid, needs review or invalid, with the reason, before you see its scores.
Scored rows: swap_spotter_game test trials after a passed color check, leaving out a trial during which the tab was hidden or the window changed size, one with a second finger or a palm on the screen, and one whose shapes showed for under 1,800 or over 2,400 ms or whose blank lasted under 800 or over 1,200 ms: same or changed, with no time limit. A color check that was not passed invalidates and the session is not scored. Fewer than 24 of 32 scored color-block trials invalidates. The same answer on 29 or more of a block's 32 trials is flagged, and so is an A prime at or below 0.5 in the shape block. Half or more of the answers under 200 ms invalidates.
Why these rules
The color check shows that the colors can be told apart on this screen, which the color block's cue depends on, so a session that does not pass it is recorded as not measurable, not scored (Ruling 7). There is no correct option to compare with chance, so accuracy is not judged against chance. Accuracy is summarised by A prime, which is 0.5 for a person who cannot tell a change from a repeat, so the shape block is flagged at or below it and no other chance test is made. 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 same answer on nearly every trial means the answers did not depend on the shapes. The limits of 24 of 32 trials and of 29 of 32 answers are ConductScience choices, not published ones. 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 |
|---|---|---|
| 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 Swap Spotter Game in a web browser (ConductCognition task version 1.0.0, scoring version 1.0.0; Parra and colleagues, 2010), with the standard settings (look: Game). The main score was binding accuracy (A Prime; A prime over the scored trials of the color block: how well swaps of colors between two shapes are called Changed and repeats are called Same. 0.5 is chance and 1 is perfect).
ConductCognition versions: task version 1.0.0, scoring version 1.0.0. Every export records the versions each session used, for a methods section.
- Norton, D. J., Parra, M. A., Sperling, R. A., Baena, A., Guzman-Velez, E., Jin, D. S., et al. (2020). Visual short-term memory relates to tau and amyloid burdens in preclinical autosomal dominant Alzheimer's disease. Alzheimer's Research & Therapy, 12(1), 99. https://doi.org/10.1186/s13195-020-00660-zThe task this game follows: three polygons shown for 2 seconds, a blank of 900 ms and a second array until the answer, in blocks of 32 trials for shape only and for color-shape binding, half of them changed (methods read in full).
- Parra, M. A., Abrahams, S., Logie, R. H., Méndez, L. G., Lopera, F., & Della Sala, S. (2010). Visual short-term memory binding deficits in familial Alzheimer's disease. Brain, 133(9), 2702-2713. https://doi.org/10.1093/brain/awq148The shape-only and color-shape binding conditions that the game takes (abstract read).
- Grier, J. B. (1971). Nonparametric indexes for sensitivity and bias: Computing formulas. Psychological Bulletin, 75(6), 424-429. https://doi.org/10.1037/h0031246The formula for A prime, the main score.
- Machado, G. M., Oliveira, M. M., & Fernandes, L. A. F. (2009). A physiologically-based model for simulation of color vision deficiency. IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics, 15(6), 1291-1298. https://doi.org/10.1109/TVCG.2009.113The simulations of color vision under which the six colors were checked.
Source papers
Questions
How long does the Swap Spotter Game take?
About 5 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?
Binding Accuracy (A Prime), Shape Accuracy (A Prime), Binding Cost and Usable Trials. Each session is also marked valid, needs review or invalid, with the reason.
How widely is the Change Detection test used in research?
These counts belong to the Change Detection test, the published test this game is compared with. This game is a new measure, so its own reliability and norms come from use. 161 papers from 2021 to 2025 name the task in their title or abstract, down 22% compared with 2016 to 2020. That ranks it 180 of 582 test families in the ConductCognition test census (use grade C). Source: ConductCognition test census 0.39.0, counted 31 October 2026 from OpenAlex and ClinicalTrials.gov.
How much reliability evidence does the Change Detection test have?
These counts belong to the Change Detection 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, 3 papers report the task's test-retest reliability and 6 registered clinical studies use it as an outcome (evidence grade C 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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