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True North

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Stephanie
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Visiting a new city can be fun and rewarding, but finding your way around can be a challenge. You have to hold a lot of things in your memory: the set of turns, the distances, the direction you’re headed, and more. It takes a lot of brain coordination to successfully navigate an unfamiliar system or place!

True North is a brain training exercise that helps you practice holding this kind of information in your head as you follow increasingly complex instructions while simultaneously keeping track of ever-changing cardinal directions. This kind of mental mapping is not just useful when you are literally following directions and trying to get from point A to point B—it also helps improve your memory for multi-tasking and can boost your short-term memory skills in other situations.

True North is one of the exercises from BrainHQ’s Navigation category. In True North, verbal instructions will tell you how to reach a destination. Your task in True North is to remember the instructions–what direction you need to head in, and what stops you need to get off at.

Here’s how the exercise works:

  1. You find yourself at a train station. A compass appears in the bottom left corner of the screen to indicate which direction is north, and then a speaker icon appears on screen to let you know that verbal instructions are being given.
    An animation from the beginning of a trial from True North. The setting appears to be a subway station with four tracks leading in each of the four cardinal directions. A sign at the top of the window indicates this station is called Grand Central Terminal. A compass is shown in the bottom right corner of the window, indicating that North is towards the top of the screen. A large speaker icon appears, and a callout bubble reads Take the eastbound train to Southview Road...then take the southbound train to Marina Terrace.
  2. Once the verbal instructions have ended the speaker icon will disappear, and then trains will appear on various platforms. Select the train that is facing the direction you first need to go in.
    Tip!: If you’re not sure which train goes in which direction, look at the arrows painted on the trains. The arrows indicate which way the train will leave the station.
    An image from True North. Two trains are now visible on two of the train platforms across the screen. The train on the left of the screen will be exiting right, and the train on the right of the screen will be exiting left.
  3. A brief scene on the train will play out. If the verbal instructions listed a specific stop to get off at, you’ll be prompted to select that stop on this screen. (Not present during all levels.)
    An image from True North. The scene has changed to the interior of a train. There are several other passengers boarded. A selection window has appeared and lists the name of several different stations the train will be stopping at.
    • If you are correct, or if the level didn’t indicate a specific stop, continue to Step 4 below.
    • If you are incorrect, go back to Step 1 above.
  4. You arrive at the next station, but there is no compass to indicate which direction is north. The train you arrived on departs this station. Remember which direction that train leaves, and use that to reorient yourself at this new station.
    An animation from True North. The train stop reads Southview Road, and the scene changes from being inside the train to outside at the train station. One train is currently visible at this station, and it exits the station via the bottom of the window.
  5. More trains will appear at the station. Recall the verbal instructions, and then select the next train to board based on the verbal instructions.
    An animation from True North. Two trains appear at Southview Road station. The first train is across the top of the window and it will be exiting to the left of the window. The second train is on a lower train track and is set to exit via the bottom of the window. A mouse cursor appears and selects the first train, and the train departs. Another scene inside the train occurs where the next train station stop can be made. The mouse cursor appears again and selects Marina Terrace.
    • If you are correct, go back to Step 3 above and continue following the verbal instructions.
    • If you are incorrect, go back to Step 1 above.

Most True North levels have a two-part answer, so there are two different ways to be marked wrong: 

  • Selecting the incorrect stop to disembark
  • Selecting the incorrect train to board

If an incorrect stop is selected, you’ll hear a “bonk” sound and the correct answer will briefly show on screen. If an incorrect train is selected, you’ll hear a “bonk” sound, the correct train will appear on screen, and the compass will reappear to show which direction the correct train was oriented in. After an incorrect answer is given, the level may give you fewer verbal instructions to remember in following turns.

If the correct answer is given you’ll hear a “boop” sound, and you may be given longer verbal instructions to remember in following turns.

In both cases, the level then continues, repeating from Step 1 above.

You can review the exercise video tutorial here:

True North from BrainHQ from Posit Science on Vimeo.

We also have a recording of a live demonstration of True North here, which we would strongly recommend watching:

As you progress through True North, it becomes more challenging in these ways:

  • The instructions become more complex and confusing.
  • Orientation information becomes more complex.
  • The speech becomes faster and less processed.

You may also notice that the verbal instructions in Stage 2 and higher may sound a little strange at first. Speech processing similar to that described in the Memory Grid exercise has been applied to the instructions to better train your brain in the auditory memory component of the task.

  • The speech is processed natural speech instead of synthetic speech in part because there is a benefit to novelty and difference.
  • Providing different examples of speech (male vs. female voices, different accents, different timing, etc.) is intended to give the brain practice with generalizing speech, so that the brain can identify a word regardless of who says it.

A common misconception is that the processed speech is trying to make speech more intelligible. It is not. People may even find the processed speech more difficult to understand than normal speech. The goal of the processed speech is to to target the parts of your brain that process sound and renormalize the neurons there, reteaching them to separate auditory events.

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