Self-Ordered Pointing Task
Loot a different treasure every time
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What is the Self-Ordered Pointing Task?
The Self-Ordered Pointing Task is a test of working memory in which you choose the order yourself. It was devised by Michael Petrides and Brenda Milner in 1982. The same set of pictures is shown on a series of pages, with the pictures in new positions on every page, and on each page the person points to a picture they have not chosen before. To finish without a repeat, you have to keep track of every choice you have made so far.
Petrides and Milner found that patients who had parts of the frontal lobes removed made more repeats than healthy people, and later brain imaging showed that self-ordered tasks engage the mid-dorsolateral prefrontal cortex. Researchers use the task to study how we monitor our own choices in working memory. The Neuroptimize Self-Ordered Pointing Task turns it into a treasure raid: a hoard of swords, potions, rings and shields reshuffles after every pick, with your loot staying put among fresh treasure, and you must loot something new each time.
How to play the Self-Ordered Pointing Task
- A chest of treasure appears on a grid, each item glowing in its rarity colour. Tap any item to loot it for your bag.
- After every loot the hoard reshuffles into new positions. Everything you have looted stays on the board, and the rest of it fills with fresh treasure, different each time. Loot an item you do not have yet. The loot bag counts your haul but never shows what is inside.
- Tapping an item you already looted is a miss and costs a life. Each chest has three lives, and a chest ends when your haul is full or you have lost all three lives, when the fresh items you could still have taken light up.
- A session has two chests, each with a fresh hoard. Every new loot scores more than the last, a streak builds a combo, and clearing a chest earns a bonus.
- Higher levels bring bigger hauls (from 5 up to 12 items a chest) and look-alikes: first the same item in another colour, then items that differ by a single part such as a gem, a sword guard or a ring setting, and later by tiny marks like a notch in a blade. From level 6 more and more of the fresh items are look-alikes of things you have already looted, and from level 10 the item you just took is always followed by one of its look-alikes when there is one.
- From level 13 the items tilt to new angles after each reshuffle, and from level 22 they may also be mirrored. From level 19 the board holds two extra fresh items, so there is more to check each time, and from level 25 mimics appear: an item may glow in a different rarity colour, so you have to judge the item itself.
Strategies and tips
Name what you loot
Give each item a short name as you take it, such as "gold sword, red gem". A list of names is easier to check than a set of pictures, and it survives the reshuffle.
Keep a tally by kind
Count what you hold of each kind, such as two swords and a potion. When a sword turns up, you only need to compare it with the two swords in your bag, not with everything you have looted.
Check the differences
When several items share a kind, find what sets them apart, such as the gem colour, the shape of a guard or a small notch, and remember that detail for each one you loot.
Ignore position, angle and glow
The hoard reshuffles after every pick, and at higher levels items tilt, flip and change their glow. None of these change what an item is, so look at its parts instead.
New kinds are safe
An item of a kind you have not looted yet in this chest can never be a repeat. When one is on the board it is a sure pick; save your careful checking for the look-alikes.
The science behind the Self-Ordered Pointing Task
The Self-Ordered Pointing Task, devised by Michael Petrides and Brenda Milner in 1982, shows the same set of pictures page after page in new positions, and you point to a different one each time without repeating any. Because you choose the order yourself, success depends on keeping track of what you have already picked. Patients with frontal-lobe excisions were impaired on it, and brain imaging by Petrides and colleagues (1993) found that self-ordered tasks engage the mid-dorsolateral prefrontal cortex. Here each page is a reshuffled hoard where your loot stays among fresh treasure, and every loot must be one you don’t have yet.
Frequently asked questions
What does the Self-Ordered Pointing Task measure?
It measures working memory, and in particular the ability to monitor your own choices: remembering which items you have already picked while you plan the next one. It is often used in research on the frontal lobes.
Who created the Self-Ordered Pointing Task?
Michael Petrides and Brenda Milner introduced it in 1982 at the Montreal Neurological Institute, in a study of patients who had parts of the frontal or temporal lobes removed.
Why do the items keep moving?
In the original task the pictures appear in new positions on every page, so you cannot simply remember which places you have pointed to. The game reshuffles the hoard after every pick for the same reason, and swaps in fresh treasure for the items you left, so the only sure way to finish a chest is to remember what is already in your bag.
Is the Self-Ordered Pointing Task free?
Yes. The Self-Ordered Pointing Task is a free game in Neuroptimize that unlocks once you reach player level 17. Pro members can play it straight away.