Free memory game — instant play, no signup, no download
Number Sequence presents digits one at a time and asks you to reproduce the sequence. Serial presentation is meaningfully different from seeing the whole number at once — you cannot re-scan, so the encoding has to happen live.
Digits are presented one at a time.
Watch the whole sequence without typing.
Reproduce it in order when prompted.
Each success adds a digit.
Your score is the longest sequence reproduced.
Each round shows a string of digits for 1 second plus 0.4 seconds per digit — half as long again on easy, 30% shorter on hard. Normal and easy start at three digits and hard at four; every correct answer adds one digit.
One wrong answer ends the run. Your score is the round you reached, and your best round is saved in this browser along with the total time of the run.
Serial working memory. Order information is held separately from item information, and serial presentation loads the order component harder than a simultaneous display does. Another memory game to try next: Missing Object.
This is a digit-span task: remember a string of digits for a few seconds and type it back. Digit span has been part of intelligence and memory assessment for over a century because it is quick, reliable and sensitive to attention.
Most adults hold about seven digits, and far fewer without grouping them. Nelson Cowan's review of short-term memory capacity argues the underlying limit is around four chunks, which is why reading a long string as pairs or triples ('58-31-94') works so much better than trying to hold each digit separately.
Rehearse in a rhythm. Rhythm carries order better than meaning does.
Chunk in threes as the digits arrive, not afterwards.
Do not look away mid-sequence. A missed digit breaks the whole order.
Type back at the same tempo as the presentation.
Number Memory shows the whole number at once, so you can scan it. Here the digits arrive one at a time, which loads order more heavily.
A great deal. It is the main reason span scores are not comparable across different sites.
You can, and you should — but rehearsing costs you attention for the digits still arriving. Balancing that is the skill.
The serial position effect. The middle gets neither the rehearsal of the start nor the recency of the end.