What visual memory is
Visual memory is your ability to hold on to what you saw once it is no longer in front of you. It covers shapes, faces, layouts and where things were.
Psychologists separate it from memory for words. In the model of working memory that Alan Baddeley and Graham Hitch proposed in 1974, one part handles speech-based information and another handles visual and spatial information. That split is why a person can be strong with patterns and only average with digits, or the reverse. The verbal memory page covers the other side.
Short-term visual memory lasts a few seconds and holds only a little. Long-term visual memory is what lets you recognize a street you have not walked in years. The test on this page measures the short-term kind.
Where you use it day to day
- Glancing at a map, then walking the route without checking again.
- Copying a diagram from a screen into your notes.
- Finding your place on a page after looking away.
- Remembering where you put your keys a moment ago.
- Keeping track of where the other players are in a game.
Test your visual memory
In the test above, squares flash on a grid for about a second. Then the board goes blank and you tap the ones that flashed, in any order. Level 1 has 3 squares on a 3 by 3 board. Every level adds a square, and the board grows up to 7 by 7. Three wrong taps on one level costs a life, and you have three. Your score is the highest level you clear. Most people clear 7 to 9 levels.
How to strengthen it
Visual memory scores rise mostly through strategy, not through a bigger store.
Group what you see. A row of three squares is a line. Four together are a box. A few shapes are easier to hold than many separate positions.
Use landmarks. Corners and edges are easy to place. Fix those first and locate everything else relative to them.
Look once, widely. Take in the whole scene from the middle instead of scanning item by item.
Practice in short sessions. Expect the biggest gains on the task you practice. True photographic memory has never been convincingly demonstrated in adults, so do not judge yourself against it.
The score table is on the visual memory test page. For ways to turn practice into play, see visual memory games.