Spatial memory helps retain the locations of objects and the relationships between places. The Memory Index samples short-term location recall on a structured grid.
Spatial memory contributes to finding an object you put down, returning to a place, navigating a familiar environment, and maintaining a mental layout. These activities also involve perception, attention, orientation, and sometimes long-term memory.
Laboratory spatial-span tasks often present locations in a particular order. The format used here is narrower: it asks which location held a named symbol after a brief display.
Each of five tasks shows three to five different symbols placed in a 4 × 4 grid for three seconds. The symbols then disappear, one target symbol is named, and four possible cells are made selectable. You choose the cell where that symbol appeared.
The number of displayed locations increases across the block. A correct location adds one point to the spatial dimension result. Speed after the display disappears is not scored.
The task is conceptually related to location and spatial-span paradigms such as the Corsi block-tapping task. It is not a digital copy of Corsi, and published norms for Corsi cannot be transferred to this assessment. A task needs its own reliability and validity evidence.
Screen size, visual acuity, attention, fatigue, and the strategy used to encode locations all matter. Some people remember a shape formed by the symbols; others attach verbal labels such as “top left.” Practice can improve strategy independently of everyday spatial memory.
Kessels and colleagues describe the history and standardisation of the Corsi Block-Tapping Task. Brunetti and colleagues examined a digital tablet implementation called eCorsi, illustrating why digital adaptations require task-specific testing.
The Memory Index is a 20-task assessment across visual, sequence, working and spatial memory. It takes about 10 minutes and your score is free.
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