Chimp Test: Remember the Numbers, Then Click in Order

The chimp test uses a grid of 40 squares: 8 columns by 5 rows on a wide screen, and 5 columns by 8 rows on a phone. In the first round, the numbers 1 to 4 appear on random squares. Take as long as you like to study them, because nothing happens until you click 1.

The moment you click 1, every other number turns into a blank square. Now click the rest from lowest to highest, from memory. Each square you click correctly disappears. Clear them all and a Continue screen appears, and the next round has one more number, on a new random layout.

If you click a square out of order, that is a strike. The round starts again with the same count of numbers but a new layout, so you cannot simply repeat what you saw. Three strikes end the chimp test. There is no timer at any point, so speed never matters, only the order of your clicks.

Your score is the most numbers you cleared in a single round. Since each cleared round adds one number, that is the length of the longest round you finished. If you never clear the first round of 4, your score is 0. If you clear all 40 squares, the grid has no room for another number and the test ends with a perfect run.

The result screen places your score in one of five bands: 0 to 6, 7 to 9, 10 to 12, 13 to 16, and 17 or more. Each band describes what that run looks like and suggests what to try next, such as taking a mental snapshot before your first click. The bands are a guide for comparing your own attempts, not a ranking against other people.

Your best score is saved on this device, so you can come back and try to beat it. This site does not collect anyone's results, which means there is no chimp test average score or world record to show here, and no leaderboard. The only comparison on this page is you against your own earlier tries.

The game is named after a real experiment. In 2007, Sana Inoue and Tetsuro Matsuzawa of Kyoto University's Primate Research Institute published a study in the journal Current Biology on the working memory of numerals in chimpanzees. Young chimpanzees, the best known of them a male named Ayumu, had learned to touch the numerals 1 to 9 in order on a touchscreen.

In one version of the task, the numerals appeared at random spots, and as soon as the first one was touched, the others were replaced by plain squares, much like the chimp test on this page. The researchers reported that the young chimpanzees, Ayumu in particular, matched or beat the university students they tested, especially when the numbers were shown only very briefly.

That chimpanzee memory test became famous well beyond science, and it also started a debate. Later studies suggested that people who practice the task a lot can come much closer to Ayumu's level, and researchers still discuss how fair it is to compare species with such different training. Either way, this chimp test is a game inspired by the research, with more squares and no time limit, not a copy of the lab task.

The task leans on working memory, the small mental workspace that holds information for a few seconds while you use it. Here you hold both where each square is and which number it had. Psychologists have studied similar abilities for decades, from George Miller's 1956 idea of seven, plus or minus two items, to the Corsi block-tapping task of the 1970s, where people repeat a sequence of taps on a set of blocks. Work by Luck and Vogel in 1997 suggested that visual working memory holds only a few objects at once, which is why strategy matters so much.

Everyday factors count too. Tiredness, distraction and rushing all cost you numbers, and so does a small screen where the squares sit close together. Every layout is random, so some rounds happen to form a neat line while others scatter the numbers across the whole grid. One awkward layout can cost a strike, which is why a single chimp test tells you less than a few played in a row.

Use the free time before your first click. Since there is no timer, look at the grid until you have a clear mental snapshot of where every number sits, and only then click 1. It can help to name the positions in your head, such as top left, middle, bottom right, while you study them.

Trace a path. Follow the numbers with your eyes from 1 to the highest, as if drawing a line, and remember the shape it makes. A zigzag, a loop or an L shape is far easier to hold than a cloud of separate points. In longer rounds, split the path into small groups of three or four squares and remember each group as a single chunk.

Then click calmly. Speed earns you nothing in the chimp test, so pause between squares if you need to and check each one against your snapshot. After a strike, take a breath before you press Continue. The new layout is a fresh start, not a repeat of the round you just missed.

Scores move around from one try to the next. Random layouts, your focus at that moment and how tired you are all shift the result, and two quick strikes can end a run that was going well. Look at your best score and your trend over several sessions rather than at any single attempt.

This is a game, not a medical, IQ, clinical or hiring test. A high or low chimp test score says nothing about your intelligence or your health. If you are worried about changes in your memory, talk to a doctor rather than relying on an online game.