Scene Crasher

Imagine looking through your spice rack for the thyme. Mid-search, you’re interrupted by a dog barking outside. You look out the window, then back at the spice rack. Do you remember what you’ve already searched so you can pick up where you left off, or do you have to start over again?

In everyday life, we constantly scan scenes in the world around us like in the examples above. Remembering what’s where as you glance away is an incredibly important skill, because it enables you to continue your scan and spot important changes when you glance back.

Scene Crasher is one of the exercises from BrainHQ’s Memory category, and it’s designed to challenge your ability to hold the details of a scene in your working memory. In scientific terms, it’s a “delayed recognition span” exercise. Your task in Scene Crasher is to quickly take in a scene with many objects before they disappear, and then identify the items that have been added to the scene when all the objects reappear.

Here’s how the exercise works:

1. Objects—keys, sheep, mushrooms, etc—will appear on screen for a moment.
   
2. The screen will turn to static to clear your vision
   
3. The previous objects will appear on screen in the same position as before, but one additional object will have been added. Select the object that has been added to this scene.
   

If an incorrect answer is given, you’ll hear a “bonk” sound and fewer objects will show up in the next turn for you to track. If a correct answer is given, you’ll hear a “boop” sound and the number of objects to track in future turns may increase. In both cases, the level then continues, repeating from Step 1 above.

You can review the exercise video tutorial below:

Scene Crasher from BrainHQ from Posit Science on Vimeo.

As you progress through Scene Crasher, it becomes more challenging in these ways:

• The “visual emphasis” changes: the items get harder to see against the background.
• The timing changes: the scene flashes on screen for shorter times.
• The display area increases: the items are arranged further from the center of the screen.
• The items to track change