Memory Tests For Your Working, Visual and Spatial Memory

memory research memory tests

I don't know about you, but I used to loathe having to do exams because of the work you had to put into them to get good results.

I did the work of course but I always slightly resented the fact that I had to make that effort.

Now when it comes to doing tests that I don't have to prepare for - well I love those.

These are tests that tell me who I am and how good I at things that I do naturally.

Psychological and psychometric tests are typical of these and given my interest in developing our remembering and recall abilities, I love trying out memory tests.

I found a great test on the BBC website that is part of a long term study in memory performance and development.

I will give you the link at the end of the post but first I want to tell you what the tests are about (without giving away too much crucial information of course).

It only takes 20 minutes to do and you will need a flash installed on your computer (don't worry about that, if you have a modern computer and not one from the ark the chances are you already have this but the site does give you the relevant downloads if needed).

There are 10 stages to the test, a couple of which are simply questionnaires to find out about life style choices and some common memory related challenges most people face.

Here is a list of what is tested:

1.   Visual Recognition Memory - you are presented with a scene and have to decide later on whether the picture has changed - a sort of spot the difference.

2.  Memory Binding - This is your ability to put things into your working memory and then update them when they change.  You need this ability for everyday activities.

3.  Numbers - Digit Span - One of the classic psychological tests is to see how many numbers you can hold in your short term memory.  It is believed that we generally have a capacity of 7 + 2.

Now in the World Memory Championships I held a 122 digit number in my short term memory and recalled it, becoming only the third person ever to break 100 digits at that time.

So the effective use of the appropriate technique can in fact distort psychological "standards" to quite a significant degree (most people will just try and repeat the number over and over again which is only effective up to the 7+ 2 range)

4.  Visual Working Memory - The capacity of this part of our memory is the limit to whcih we can hold visual information and the test they use here is actually quite fun - I did really well in this one and achieved a standard that less than 3% of the population ever achieve.

Scientists believe there is a limit to our visual working memory because we would probably be overloaded if we were able to remember everything we saw in a particular day.

5.  Long Term Memory - Everyday objects - This was a very simple test that asked just a a couple of questions about every day items we encounter just about every day and goes to show that just because we see something every day does not mean we will remember it - I got them both wrong!

6.  Delayed Recall - This is similar to the visual recognition test but spread over a longer period of time.

As human beings our ability to recognise pictures we have seen before is very good indeed -  the BBC quotes research done with people shown up to 10,000 different images with a recognition accuracy of 90%

7.  Working Memory Span - this was a very interesting test that looked at your processing time and your memory capacity and was quite a good mental workout - Women tend to do better in this test than men.

8.  Spatial Manipulation in Working Memory - now this sounds like a really difficult test but it wasn't (in terms of the concept at least).

Men are statistically better at this sort of test than women and there is no real answer as to why there are these differences with these two tests.

After working through all of the tests (which do take about 20 minutes) they give you a quick summary of the results and explain what each test means.

The only thing lacking is an indication of how you are in relation to the rest of the population.

I think this is its only short fall because you do get a sense of how good you are (or not) by how well you feel youhave done in the tests.

It is definitely worth doing, if only for the mental stimulation and workout you will get.

So just head on over to the BBC Memory Test and let me know how you got on.

memory research memory tests