Complex Working Memory (CWM) Tutorial

Overview

The CWM exercise consists of the remembering rounds and the recall stage. The number of the rounds in an exercise equals to the current level of the CWM exercise.

Every round in the CWM exercise consists of two parts: the Decision making part at the beginning and the Remembering part at the end.

There are usually 4 Decision tasks in one round that are followed by an item to Remember. So, for example, it the exercise level is 5 you'll have to remember 5 items in total.

After all rounds passed there is a Recall stage where you have to recall all the remembered items.

There are two types of the CWM Span Task:

  • Spatial CWM
  • Verbal CWM

The Decision and Remembering/Recall parts of the exercise are different for each type.

Spatial CWM

On the Decision stage of the Spatial CWM you'll have to make a decision whether the displayed figure is symmetric on the Y axis. (Symmetric means its left part is its mirrored reflection of the right part)

Examples:

Symmetric figure:
Non-Symmetric figure:

If the figure is symmetric press the Yes button (or correspondent key on the keyboard). If not symmetric - press No.

On the Remembering stage of the Spatial CWM you are shown the grid with one filled cell. Remember the cell position on every round.

On the Recall stage you have to recall the positions of cells in the order they appeared (by clicking the cells in the grid).

Verbal CWM

On the Decision stage of the Verbal CWM you'll have to make a decision whether the displayed characters form the correct word.

If the word is spelled correctly press the Yes button (or correspondent key on the keyboard). If not - press No.

On the Remembering stage of the Verbal CWM you are shown the alphabet letter. Remember the letter on every round.

On the Recall stage you have to recall the letters in the order they appeared (by clicking the cells in the grid).