Number memory test

How the test works

Each number stays on screen for a few seconds, and the first one has three digits. Your result is the longest number you recalled correctly on that attempt; if you miss the first round, no complete round is recorded.

What does my result mean?

Your result depends on this exercise’s timing, whether you use word cues, and your familiarity with the technique, so use it to describe this attempt. The exercise has no population benchmark and does not measure your overall memory ability. Untimed learning practice is shown separately and never changes the timed result.

How many digits do most people remember?

In laboratory versions of this test, where digits are read aloud at about one a second and repeated straight back, most adults recall five to seven digits. George Miller made seven the famous figure in 1956 with his paper “The Magical Number Seven, Plus or Minus Two”, and a 2011 study of 763 adults aged 18 to 65 found a median span of six, with four in five people in that range. This test shows the number on screen for a set time instead of reading it aloud, so those figures are not a benchmark for your result here.

The limit is not fixed. In a study published in 1980, one man practised for more than 230 hours and raised his span from 7 digits to 79. A long-distance runner, he did it by recoding groups of digits as running times he already knew, and the gain stayed with digits rather than spreading to other material. The Major System does the same job with words, and the lesson below shows how.

Turn the result into a short lesson

Choose “Learn and retry” after the test for a lesson that explains the number you missed, then offers a different number of the same length. Study its word cues for as long as you need, hide the number and cues, and recall the digits in order.

For example, 137 becomes tomb + key. Picture a key hanging from a tomb, remembering tomb first and key second. In the Major System, tomb gives T (1) and M (3), since the b is silent, and key gives K (7). Join 13 and 7 to recover 137.

Read the number in pairs: 07 is key (the zero in front is silent, as on the chart) and 00 is sauce. A final unpaired digit gets its own word, so a lone 0 is ice.

Explore the 00 to 99 chart and lookup, continue with the timed number drill, or try Daily Digits, the same numbers for everyone each day. For words instead of digits, take the word list memory test.