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Spot the change

A board of symbols, a blank, the board again with one cell changed: tap it. More symbols, shorter looks and subtler changes as you climb.

  • Attention and speed
  • Timed
  • Endless levels

How it plays

A board of symbols is shown for a moment, then a blank, then the board again — with exactly one cell different. When it goes, tap the cell that changed.

The blank hides the flicker that would otherwise point at the change, so it has to be found by comparing. Changes start with a symbol appearing or vanishing, then a symbol becoming another shape, then the subtlest: a filled shape turning hollow.

Levels add symbols (the board grows to fit), shorten each look, and unlock the subtler changes. Which kinds appear is a setting.

Keys

Space starts and skips ahead · 1–9 pick · Enter submits · Esc stops. On a phone, tap.

What it trains

This practises scanning a scene and comparing it with one you just saw. It improves change spotting of this kind; it claims nothing about attention in general.

Learn

How to get better at spot the change: the method, the techniques, what each new level asks of you, and the traps the wrong answers are made of.

Your approach to each question

  1. On the first look, take in the layout first — which cells are full and which empty, and the shape the full ones make — then the symbols themselves.
  2. Run over the symbols in one fixed order, row by row, and name each briefly: “dot, hollow square, star”.
  3. Hold that picture through the blank, then check the second look in the same order you learned the first.
  4. Tap the cell that changed and press Done or Enter. If a symbol vanished, the answer is the cell where it was, now empty.

Techniques and tricks

  • Remember the layout as one shape

    The full cells make a pattern — an L, a diagonal, a cluster in one corner. Held as one shape, it costs you one thing to remember, and a symbol appearing or vanishing breaks it at once.

  • Name the board in short phrases

    Say each row as a phrase of names, with gaps as “gap”. A phrase of three or four is far easier to hold than the same symbols as a picture.

    e.g. “Dot, gap, star” · “square, gap, gap” · “gap, triangle, gap”

  • Count the hollows

    On a small board, count the symbols and the hollow ones on the first look. On the second: a new total means a symbol came or went; a new hollow count means a fill change; neither means a shape changed.

  • Watch the triangle pairs

    The six shapes include ▲ and ▼, which are different shapes here. A ▲ turning into a ▼ is a shape change with the fill kept, and the easiest one to pass over.

  • Cover half, then decide

    When the board is too big to hold, learn one half fully — the top rows, say. If that half has not changed, the change is in the other half, and your search there is shorter.

As the levels climb

  • The symbols grow by one every level or two from “Symbols at level 0” (4 by default), and the board grows to stay no more than 60% full: 3×3, then 4×4 at 6 symbols and 5×5 at 10.
  • Each look shortens from 1.6 s to 1.35 at level 2, 1.15 at level 5, then 0.95, 0.8 and 0.65, down to 0.55 s at level 14 — plus 0.12 s for every symbol on the board.
  • At level 3 a symbol can turn into another shape; at level 6 a filled shape can turn hollow, or back. From then on any of the three can come, so name fill as well as shape.

Traps to avoid

  • The fill change missed because the shape stayed: ★ to ☆, ◆ to ◇. If you named shapes only, you held nothing that could catch it — say “hollow” when a shape is hollow.
  • The shape change that keeps the fill: a filled ● becoming a filled ■ leaves the board as dark as it was, so a look for light and dark passes over it. Only names catch it.
  • Spending the whole first look on one corner and leaving the rest unseen. The change is as likely to be anywhere, so spread the look.

How to practise

  • In “Changes to include”, leave only “A filled shape turns hollow, or back” to drill the subtlest change, then add the others back.
  • Lower “Symbols at level 0” to 3 while you learn the naming habit; raise it towards 12 when the small boards feel easy.
  • “Time pressure” only changes the time you get to answer, not the looks, so leave it on Normal and spend your effort on the looks.

Levels

Each question has a clock that comes from the work it asks for. There is no last level: at least one dial turns without end. Your level is judged on your last ten answers, every ten: 90% moves you up, below 80% moves you down, which holds most people near four in five right.

All of it is in the settings beside Start — how many answers a judgement looks at and how often it recalibrates, the thresholds, the time, which questions, how many options, and whether you see each verdict at once or review them together at the judgement. You can also jump to any level.

More attention and speed

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