Fragment Completion
Complete the word with the missing letters
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What is the Fragment Completion?
In a word Fragment Completion task, you see a word with some letters missing, such as "pl_nt", and fill in the gaps to make a real word. It is a long established tool in memory research, especially in studies of priming, where seeing a word earlier can make its fragment easier to complete later, even when people do not consciously remember seeing it.
Because it relies on recognising a word from incomplete information, fragment completion is used to study how the mind fills in missing parts of familiar patterns. The Neuroptimize Fragment Completion game presents one word at a time with between one and three gaps, and you choose the letters that complete it from a set of options within a 60 second session.
How to play the Fragment Completion
- A word appears as a row of tiles with one or more blank spaces marked by question marks.
- Choose the option that fills the gaps to make a real word. With several gaps, each option gives the letters for all of them in order, left to right.
- You can tap an option or press its number key. When there is only one gap, you can also type the letter itself.
- Every puzzle has exactly one option that makes a real word. A wrong choice shows your letters in red, reveals the full word and breaks your combo.
- Each session lasts 60 seconds. Longer words and more gaps earn more points.
- As your level rises, the number of gaps grows from one to two at level 9 and three at level 19, the options grow from three to six, and words get longer and less common.
- From level 12, one wrong option may contain the right letters in the wrong order, like ea instead of ae, so check the order carefully.
Strategies and tips
Read the whole fragment
Look at the full shape of the word, not just the letters around the gap. The start and end of a word often point to it before you have thought about the missing letters.
Try each option in place
Mentally slot each option into the gaps and read the result as a whole word. The correct one usually jumps out, while the wrong ones read as nonsense.
Check the letter order
With two or more gaps, the letters fill the blanks from left to right. At higher levels a decoy may use the right letters swapped, so make sure the first letter belongs in the first gap.
Think vowel or consonant
Decoys usually swap a vowel for another vowel or a consonant for another consonant. If you know the gap must be a vowel, focus on which vowel makes a word you recognise.
Sound it out
Saying the fragment quietly, with a guess in each gap, can help when you cannot see the word straight away. Many words are easier to recognise by sound than by sight.
The science behind the Fragment Completion
In a word fragment completion task, participants fill in the missing letters of a partially presented word. The task is used in memory research, particularly in studies of priming, and depends on recognising words from incomplete information.
Frequently asked questions
What is a word fragment completion task?
It is a task in which you are shown a word with some letters removed and asked to complete it. Memory researchers use it to study priming, the way earlier exposure to a word can make it easier to complete later.
Can more than one answer be correct?
No. Each puzzle is chosen so that only one completion forms a word in the game's dictionary, and none of the wrong options makes a real word.
How many letters can be missing?
In the English version, words have one missing letter at low levels, two from level 9 and three from level 19. The number of options to choose from also grows, from three up to six.