Verbal Memory

How to play

One word appears at a time. Say whether you have already seen it in this run or whether it is new to you. Words you have seen keep coming back, and the pool of words you are tracking grows every time a new one appears, so the job gets harder the longer you last. You have three lives. Each correct answer is a point, and your score is how many you got before running out of lives.

Tips

• Trust the feeling of familiarity. If a word feels worn, you have almost certainly seen it.
• Do not try to hold the full list. Past roughly thirty words nobody can, and recognition still works.
• Answer quickly. Deliberating turns a clean familiarity signal into second-guessing.
• Notice the unusual words. Odd ones are easy to recognise later and cheap to remember now.
• After a mistake, take the next word slowly. Errors cluster when you tilt.

Recognition is easier than recall

This test does not ask you to produce words, only to say whether you have seen one before, and that distinction matters. Recognition memory is far more capacious than recall: you cannot list the words you have been shown, but you can usually tell a familiar one from a new one long after the list is too long to hold. The game exploits exactly that. The pool of words you are tracking grows every time a new one appears, and the score is how long your sense of familiarity stays accurate.

The words are deliberately ordinary. Obscure vocabulary would test whether you know a word, not whether you have seen it in the last few minutes.

Trusting familiarity

• Go with the feeling. A word that seems worn has almost certainly been shown. Hesitating over it is where errors come from.
• Do not try to hold the list. Past thirty or so words nobody can, and recognition works without it.
• Answer quickly. Deliberation turns a clean signal into second guessing.
• The odd ones are gifts. An unusual word is easy to recognise later, so note it when it first appears.
• After a mistake, slow down for one word. Errors come in clusters when you tilt.

Common questions

Do I have to remember the words themselves?

No. You only have to say whether each word has appeared before in this run, which is recognition rather than recall and holds up for far longer lists.

How many lives do I get?

Three. Each wrong answer costs one, and the score is correct answers before they run out.

Are the words difficult?

No. They are common English words, chosen so the test measures memory rather than vocabulary.