Digit Span

Memory Duration: ~10 minutes
Digit Span screenshot

System Requirements

🖥️
Screen Size:
Minimum: 800×600
Recommended: 1280×800
⌨️
Keyboard required
🔊
Audio recommended

Description

A test of verbal working memory where participants recall sequences of digits in forward and backward order.

Test Details

Test ID:
dspan
Main File:
digitspan.pbl
Parameters:
15 configurable parameters
Languages:
Chinese English Dutch

🚀 Try Without Registration

Run this test immediately without creating an account. Data stays in your browser.

Scientific Background

PEBL-Specific References:

These studies used the PEBL version of this task.

  • Croschere, J., Dupey, L., Hilliard, M., Koehn, H., & Mayra, K. (2012). The effects of time of day and practice on cognitive abilities: Forward and backward Corsi block test and digit span. PEBL Technical Report Series [On-line], #2012-03.

Data Output

Creates multiple data files: (1) dspan-<direction>-<subnum>.csv with columns: subnum, version (1=low-to-high, 2=high-to-low, 3=staircase), direction (forward/backward), endearly (whether testing ends early), trialnum (trial number), length (sequence length), try (attempt number at this length), input (stimulus sequence), response (participant response), correct (trial accuracy), resptime (response time in ms); (2) dspan-report<direction>-<subnum>.txt containing text summary report; (3) pooled-dspan-<direction>-<subnum>.csv with columns: subnum, timestamp, direction, final_length (span achieved), sumcorrect (total correct trials).

About This Test

A test of verbal working memory where participants recall sequences of digits in forward and backward order.

Category: Memory
Estimated Duration: 10 minutes
Available Translations: 3 languages

Documentation Sources:
Test description file, Test implementation, PEBL wiki archive, Parameter schema

Documentation Status: Complete