Attention - Pay Attention!

How To Play

In this exercise, you will have to read a series of numbers or letters, remember them, and afterwards, type them in their original order. Depending on the game variant you choose, you may alternatively be asked to type what you remember in reverse order. Other variants will ask you to reproduce what you remember by numerical or alphabetical order.

Cognitive Function Exercised

This exercise calls upon your attention skills and your working memory. The pre-frontal area of the brain involves the ability to concentrate, attend to incoming information and elaboration of thought. It uses the capacity of immediate repetition or mental manipulation of information. Working memory is a theoretical construct within cognitive psychology that refers to the structures and processes used for temporarily storing and manipulating information. There are numerous theories as to the specific parts of the brain responsible for working memory. However, most researchers agree that the frontal cortex, parietal cortex, anterior cingulate, and parts of the basal ganglia are crucial for functioning.

Benefits to Daily Life

Your attention and working memory skills are used when, for example, you need to remember and repeat a telephone number or street address. Or, when you need to recount a story starting with the events closest to the present and working backward to the beginning. Or, when you try to organize a group of people into sports teams depending on their skills or a list containing seating arrangements based on each guest's personality and interests. It's about all the activities where you have to hold a number of elements in mind and manipulate them in the service of solving a problem.