A round in progress
Cells light one at a time on a 4×4 board. When it pulses, tap them back in the same order.
Glow Grid · Visual working memory game
Glow Grid: watch the lights, tap them back
Cells light one at a time on a fixed 4×4 board. Tap them back in the same order — then backwards, once the run gets deep enough — to exercise visual working memory.
Remembering where is only half of it
Glow Grid lights distinct cells one at a time, hides them, then asks for the same sequence back. Recalling the right squares is not enough: tapping them in the wrong order still fails the round. Sequences start at three cells and grow to nine.
No cell repeats inside a round, so a double-tap is always a mistake rather than an ambiguous instruction. The board never moves either — difficulty comes from the sequence, not from relearning the layout.
What visual working memory means
Visual working memory is the short-term hold on what you just saw and the order it arrived in. Glow Grid exercises that hold inside the game, with no promise beyond the specific skill being played.
The format follows the Corsi block-tapping task used in memory research. For the reasoning behind spans, reverse recall and rule swaps, read why Glow Grid gets hard.
How to play
Glow Grid takes three steps to learn. Watch the cells light in sequence, wait for the board to pulse, then tap the same cells back in order. Clear the round to bank its points, and keep going as the sequence lengthens.
- Watch the sequence.
Cells light one at a time on a fixed board. - Wait for the pulse.
The board signals when recall begins. - Tap them back in order.
Clear the round to bank every point.
The rules change as you go
Glow Grid does not simply get longer. At 30 banked points the rule flips and sequences must be tapped backwards. At 80 points the direction begins switching between rounds, with a chip on screen always naming the current one.
Points are held as pending until a round is fully cleared, so a score reflects sequences actually recalled rather than partial progress. Rule changes only happen between rounds — the direction never flips underneath a recall already in progress.
Want a different warm-up?
Swarm swaps sequence recall for at-a-glance quantity estimates.
Explore SwarmBack to the suite
Compare every free mini-game on the Brain Training hub.
Brain Training GamesGlow Grid FAQ
Is Glow Grid free to play?
Yes. Glow Grid is free with a NeuralRun account, and its rules stay free forever.
What does Glow Grid train?
Glow Grid exercises visual working memory — holding both where the lights appeared and the order they appeared in.
Can I play Glow Grid on my phone?
Yes. Glow Grid runs in the browser on desktop and mobile.
Watch the lights. Tap them back.
Start a free Glow Grid run in your browser.