Span Variants Test

Memory Duration: ~15 minutes

Description

A comprehensive battery of 9 working memory span tasks including forward/backward digit/letter/mixed spans and ordering tasks.

About This Test

This replaces the the 'classic' digit span test from PEBL, with more variants that include running a series of letter/number/mixed span in forward/backward and ordered recall. dspan/digitspan allows running a single forward or backward span task, under a number of settings/parameters. These include auditory stimuli, procedure (staircase, small-to-large, and largest-to-smallest, control over presentation timing, and success criteria.

Test Details

Test ID:

spanvariants

Main File:

spanvariants.pbl

Parameters:

25 configurable parameters

Languages:

AR BN Chinese German English Spanish French HI Croatian Italian JA Korean Lithuanian Dutch Polish Portuguese Russian TH Turkish VI

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Scientific Background

PEBL-Specific References:

These studies used the PEBL version of this task.

Based on classic digit span tasks with extensions for letters, mixed stimuli, and ordering variants commonly used in working memory research.

Data Output

Output File:

spanvariants-{subnum}.csv

Format:

CSV

Scoring and Interpretation

Primary measure: Final span achieved for each task variant (final_span in pooled file). This represents the longest sequence correctly recalled.

Total correct: Sum of correct trials across all lengths (sumcorrect).

Progression: Tests can use low-to-high (traditional), high-to-low, or adaptive staircase methods (controlled by 'version' parameter).

The report file provides a convenient summary of all task results.

Example Data

example-data.csv Primary

Trial-level data for all span task variants

subnum	tasktype	direction	stimulus_type	trialnum	length	try	input	response	correct	resptime
example	forward_digit	forward	digit	1	3	0	465	456	0	1282
example	forward_digit	forward	digit	2	3	1	459	041	0	2311
example	backward_digit	backward	digit	1	3	0	917	719	0	2431
example	backward_digit	backward	digit	2	3	1	708	807	0	1264
example	forward_letter	forward	letter	1	3	0	RHN	NHR	0	3957
example	forward_letter	forward	letter	2	3	1	YNW	YNW	1	1096
example	forward_letter	forward	letter	3	4	0	NHRW	WRNH	0	1725
example	forward_letter	forward	letter	4	4	1	PKYW	WYKP	0	3186
example	backward_letter	backward	letter	1	3	0	RQK	RQK	1	3166

View full file (39 rows) →

example-report.txt Summary

Human-readable text summary with span results for each task variant completed

PEBL Span Variants Test
Participant: example
Started: Thu Dec 25 19:20:13 2025
forward_digit span: 2 (total correct: 0)
backward_digit span: 2 (total correct: 0)
forward_letter span: 3 (total correct: 1)
backward_letter span: 4 (total correct: 2)
forward_mixed span: 3 (total correct: 2)
backward_mixed span: 2 (total correct: 0)
ordering_digit span: 4 (total correct: 2)

View full file (14 rows) →

pooled-spanvariants.csv

Pooled summary data across all participants

example	Thu Dec 25 19:20:39 2025	forward_digit	2	0
example	Thu Dec 25 19:21:06 2025	backward_digit	2	0
example	Thu Dec 25 19:22:02 2025	forward_letter	3	1
example	Thu Dec 25 19:24:08 2025	backward_letter	4	2
example	Thu Dec 25 19:25:08 2025	forward_mixed	3	2
example	Thu Dec 25 19:26:50 2025	backward_mixed	2	0
example	Thu Dec 25 19:28:18 2025	ordering_digit	4	2
example	Thu Dec 25 19:29:56 2025	ordering_letter	4	3
example	Thu Dec 25 19:31:34 2025	ordering_mixed	4	3

Sample data showing typical output format. Actual values will vary by participant.

About This Test

A comprehensive battery of 9 working memory span tasks including forward/backward digit/letter/mixed spans and ordering tasks.

Category: Memory
Estimated Duration: 15 minutes
Available Translations: 20 languages

Documentation Sources:
Test description file, Test implementation, Parameter schema

Documentation Status: Complete