N-back exercise

I’ll tell you a little about exercise for developing concentration and short-term memory.

The essence of the method is to continuously memorize a sequence of characters - sound and visual. It is necessary to note the correspondence of the current character to the character represented by n-steps back. Hence the name - n-back.

For example, consider a sequence of alternately displayed numbers:

1 4 6 4 1 6 3

To perform the 2-back exercise, it is necessary to point out the coincidence of the current character with the character indicated 2 positions back (matches are marked in bold):

1 4 6 4 1 6 3

Indicate a match, in this example, it is necessary at the time the second digit 4 appears.

To perform the 4-back exercise, respectively:

1 4 6 4 1 6 3

You can use various sequences: colors, sounds, letters, symbol positions on the coordinate grid, simple geometric shapes. To complicate, you must gradually increase the number of steps.

The power of the method is manifested when observing several parallel symbol stacks. For example, in sequences of figures of different colors, it is necessary to indicate the coincidence not only of the shapes of the figures, but also of their colors, a few steps back. An exercise with two parallel sequences is called double n-back.

Further exercises can be complicated by increasing parallel flows and step size. Triple 5-back, arithmetic double 3-back - there are many options, and in each you can try different sequences of characters.

It is stated that the exercise is effective, but it is better to try it on personal experience. It’s worth starting with the simplest 1-back, the number of steps usually increases automatically when 80% of the correct answers for the session are reached. 20 minutes a day is enough.

You can use programs:
Brain Workshop on a PC. Here is a guide to it in Russian.
Brain N-back for Android.