HomeCognitive ScienceVisual Working Memory Capacity Lab

Visual Working Memory Capacity Lab

Run the classic change-detection working-memory task in 3D: study a colored array, hold it across a blank delay, then judge whether the test array changed. Live hit/miss tracking estimates your working-memory capacity K (Cowan's formula).

Cognitive Science3DEasy60 FPS
cognitive-neuroscience-cognitive-science ↗ Open standalone

How many things can you actually hold in mind at once? This simulator runs the classic change-detection task from visual working-memory research: a study array of colored spheres flashes briefly, vanishes for a blank retention delay, and a test array asks whether anything changed. Your pattern of hits, misses and false alarms across trials is fed into Cowan's formula, K = N × (hit rate − false-alarm rate), to estimate the actual number of items you retained — the empirical capacity limit (K ≈ 3–4 in most adults) that underlies the "magic number" findings in cognitive psychology.

⚙ Under the hood

Run the classic change-detection working-memory task: study a colored array, hold it across a blank delay, then judge whether the test array changed. Live hit/miss tracking estimates your working-memory capacity K using Cowan's formula.

working memorycognitive psychologychange detectionattentionCowan's Kneuroscience

3D · Three.js / WebGL renderer · 60 FPS target · runs fully client-side, no install

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