What is the Digit Span test?

Digit Span is a test of verbal short-term memory. ... Can you memorize a phone number for long enough to write it down? How about two phone numbers at the same ... AllCollections ExploretheScience Tests WhatistheDigitSpantest? WhatistheDigitSpantest? DigitSpanisatestofverbalshort-termmemory. WrittenbyMikeBattista Updatedoveraweekago Canyoumemorizeaphonenumberforlongenoughtowriteitdown?Howabouttwophonenumbersatthesametime?DigitSpantestsyourabilitytorememberasequenceofnumbersthatappearonthescreen,oneatatime.Whenyouhearabeep,clickonthenumbersyoujustsaw,inorder.Ifyoucorrectlyrecallallofthenumbers,thenthenextsequencewillbeonenumberlonger.Ifyoumakeamistake,thenthenextsequencewillbeonenumbershorter.Afterthreemistakes,thetestwillend.OptimizingPerformance Inthistest:Accuracydoesmatter;afterthreeerrors,thetestends.However,wronganswersdonotsubtractfromyourscore,whichisthemaximumnumberofdigitsyoucorrectlyremember.Speeddoesnotmatter.Youhaveaslongasyouwanttoanswer—butitmightbehardtorememberifyouwaittoolong! Sotogetmaximumpoints,paycarefulattentionandreachthelongeststringofdigitsyoucanpossiblyremember.Videoinstructions. Performancetips:Yourdigitspancanbeincreasedwiththerightstrategies.Experimentwithyourmentalapproachtothetesttofindstrategiesthatworkforyou.Formostpeople,"chunking"isaneffectivestrategy—insteadofthinkingabouteachdigitseparately,thinkofgroupsofdigitsthatformasmallernumberofmeaningfulunits(chunks).Forexample,insteadofthinkingabout142857assixdigits,thinkingofitasthreenumbers—14,28,and57—couldmakeiteasiertorecall.It'snoteasy,andrequiresalotofpracticetomaster. DomainScoresYourscoreonthistestcontributesto:Yourverbalabilityscore(alot).Yourshort-termmemoryscore(abit).That'sright,perhapssurprisingly,it'smorecloselyrelatedtoverbalabilitythantomemory.Thecontributionofeachtesttoeachperformancecategoryisbasedona"factoranalysis"thatlookedathowteststendtoclumptogetherwhenmeasuringamassivesetofdata.TheresultswerepublishedinNeuronin2012(Hampshire,Highfield,Parkin,&Owen,2012).Theexactcontributionofeachtesttoeachperformancecategorymaychangeasmoredataiscollected.TheScienceBehindDigitSpanThesciencebehinddigitspanrevealswhyit'sassociatedmorewithverbalabilitythanshort-termmemoryalone.Scientistsrefertoshort-termmemory,orworkingmemory,asthecognitivesystemthatallowsthetemporarystorageandmanipulationofinformation.Accordingtooneinfluentialcognitivetheory,thissystemhasspecialisedcomponents,oneofwhich,the"phonologicalloop,"underliesverbalworkingmemoryabilities(Baddeley&Hitch,1974).Thephonologicalloopcomprisesaverbalstoragesystemandarehearsalsystem.Asyoudothistest,youmayfindyourselfmentallyrehearsingthestringofdigitsastheyappearedonscreen;thisistherehearsalsysteminaction.Itallowsthevisualinputstoberecodedsothattheycanenteryourshorttermverbalstore,anditalsorefreshesdecayingrepresentations—withoutrefreshingdigitsverbally,theywouldsoonbeforgotten.Wehavebeenstudyinghowthebrainremembersverbalinformationfornearlytenyears.Ourresearchhasrevealedthat,whileyouareperformingthedigitspantask,areasofyourfrontalcortexbecomeactivated. Inonestudy(Owenetal,2000),participantseitherhadtorecalldigitsintheorderpresented(forwardrecall),orinreverseorder(backwardrecall),withbackwardbeingamuchmoredemandingtask.Wefoundthatbothtasksengagedthemid-ventrolateralfrontalcortex,butonlywhenparticipantswererecallinginreverseorderdidthemid-dorsalateralfrontalcortexbecomeactivated.Bothofthesetasksrequiredverbalworkingmemory,yetdifferentactivationpatternswereobservedinthebrain.Onthisbasis,weconcludedthatfrontal-lobeactivityinthistaskrelatestothetypeofmemoryprocessbeingperformed(i.e.,storage,reordering)andisnotspecifictothetypeofinformationthatisbeingremembered(i.e.,verbalmemory). Anaverageadultisthoughttohaveadigitspanof7items(plusorminus2;Miller,1956).Asmentionedabove,oneofthebeststudiedmethodsforimprovingverbalmemoryisthroughtheuseof"chunking"strategies,inwhichitemsarerecodedintomeaningfulunitsor"chunks."Inonestudy,bytrainingavolunteertousecomplexchunkingstrategiesoverthecourseof20months,scientistswereabletoincreasedigitspanfrom7toamassive79items(Ericcsonetal,1980)!Ourcolleagueshavestudiedtheunderlyingbrainactivityinvolvedinchunking.Whenrecodingstrategieswereusedtorememberdigitsequences,increasedactivationwasobservedinthelateralprefrontalandposteriorparietalcortex.Onthisbasis,wehavehypothesisedthatthisprefrontal-parietalnetworkunderliesstrategicrecodinginworkingmemory(Boretal.,2004,2006).DigitSpanintheRealWorldVerbalworkingmemoryisinvolvedinmanyeverydaytasks,fromrememberingatelephonenumberwhileyouenteritintoyourphone,tounderstandinglonganddifficultsentences.Thinkaboutit;howcouldyouunderstandawholesentenceifyoucouldn'trememberthewordsatthebeginninglongenoughtoconnectwiththewordsattheend!Verbalworkingmemoryisalsothoughttobeoneoftheelementsunderlyingintelligence,sothedigitspantaskisacommoncomponentofmanyIQtests,includingthewidelyusedWAIS(WechslerAdultIntelligenceScale).Performanceonthedigitspantaskisalsocloselylinkedtolanguagelearningabilities;improvingyourverbalmemorycapacitymaythereforehelpyoutomasteranewlanguageortoexpandyourvocabulary.Somepeoplehaveevenmadeasportoutofincreasingtheirdigitspan.Everyyear,theWorldMemoryChampionshiptestshowmanydigitscanberemembered,invarioustypesofgames.Inthe2015competition,whengivenanhourtomemorizedigits,thecurrentworldrecordholder,AlexMullen,recalled3029digits!Reaching3029digitsisprobablynotfeasiblefortheaverageperson,butsomestrategies(likechunking,describedabove),alongsidelifestyleoptimization,canincreaseyourdigitspan.Stressandexercisemaynothaveaneffectrightaway;theresultsofstudieslookingattheirimmediateimpactonDigitSpanareinconsistent.Gettingtherightamountofsleep,however,mayboostyourscoresrightaway.Inonestudy(Sadeh,Gruber,&Raviv,2003),childrenaskedtoincreasetheirsleepbyjustonehoursignificantlyincreasedtheirDigitSpanperformance.TryvaryingyourownsleepscheduletoseehowDigitSpanchanges.ReferencesBaddeley,A.D.,&Hitch,G.(1974).Workingmemory.InG.A.Bower(Ed.),Recentadvancesinlearningandmotivation,Vol.8.NewYork:AcademicPress.Bor.,D.,Cumming,N.,Scott,C.E.M.,&Owen,A.M.(2004).Prefrontalcorticalinvolvementinverbalencodingstrategies.EuropeanJournalofNeuroscience,19(12),3365-3370.ReadAbstract Bor,D.,&Owen,A.M.(2007).Acommonprefrontal-parietalnetworkformnemonicandmathematicalrecodingstrategieswithinworkingmemory.CerebralCortex,17,778-786.DownloadPDF Ericcson,K.A.,Chase,W.G.,&Falloon,S.(1980).Acquisitionofamemoryskill.Science,208,181-1182.Miller,G.A.(1956).Themagicalnumberseven,plusorminustwo:Somelimitsonourcapacityforprocessinginformation.PsychologicalReview,63,81-97.Owen,A.M.,Lee,A.C.H.,&Williams,E.J.(2000).Dissociatingaspectsofverbalworkingmemorywithinthehumanfrontallobe:Furtherevidencefora'process-specific'modeloflateralfrontalorganization.Psychobiology,28(2),146-155.ReadAbstractSadeh,A.,Gruber,R.,&Raviv,A.(2003).Effectsofsleeprestrictionandextensiononschool-agechildren:Whatadifferenceanhourmakes.ChildDevelopment,74(2),444-455.DownloadPDFTaub,H.(1972).Acomparisonofyoungadultandoldgroupsonvariousdigitspantasks.DevelopmentalPsychology,6,60-65.  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