Do You Remember/Husker Du Game

Background

Hūsker Dū?" is a classic picture-matching memory board game originally popularized in 1970. Its name translates to "Do you remember?" in Danish and Norwegian. The original game is celebrated for its unique design, replacing loose cards with a central, rotatable underlying wheel. To set up a round, all 36 picture slots are covered with pegs, and the wheel is then turned clockwise to shift the images into one of 18 unique layout combinations. During the game, players take turns lifting two pegs to reveal the pictures beneath. If they match, the player claims the pegs and earns an immediate second turn. If no match is found, the items are covered up once more, and play passes to the next person. The game concludes when all pairs are matched.

Memory matching games can also be played with loose cards arranged in ordered grids (e.g., a 6x6 layout) or random arrangements. These games fundamentally test visuo-spatial paired-associate memory. To find matches efficiently, players must bind an object's visual identity to its precise spatial location within a unified representation in short-term memory—intentionally ignoring a card if its counterpart hasn't appeared, but executing a pick the moment its match is revealed.

The Millisecond HuskerDu game is a simplified computerized version of the game for one player only. The paired cards (up to 32 pairs) are randomly distributed across a 8x8 grid.

Task Procedure

The default Millisecond HuskerDu game plays the game with an 8x8 grid. Thirty-two picture pairs are randomly distributed across the 64 spatial card locations and 'covered' up by gray squares. Participants get as many turns as needed until all matches are found. During each turn, participants get to uncover two cards by either clicking on them with the mouse or touching them (on touchscreens). If the cards match, a pair is found and the matched pictures are removed from the game board (leaving behind black 'holes'). Otherwise, the cards get covered up again. The game ends either if the participant clicks the 'Quit' button or all matches have been found.

What it Measures

Millisecond's HuskerDu game is a measure of visuo-spatial paired-associate memory

Psychological domains

• Visuospatial Memory: Ability to process, retain, and manipulate visual imagery and spatial layouts within the mind's eye.
• Associative Binding: Memory sub-process that links two unrelated pieces of information into a unified mental representation
• Episodic Memory: Ability to encode and recall a specific event in time and space
• Selective and Sustained Attention: Ability to maintain focus

Main Performance Metrics

• Overall Score: number of match attempts relative to the number of matches
• Perseverative Errors (PE): proportion PE errors relative to all matching attempts (PE = turning over a card that has previously been revealed to not be a match)
• Match Duration: mean, median duration for matching pairs
• Total Game Duration: total time it took to finish the game

Psychiatric Conditions

HuskerDu type memory games are often used to manage symptoms and maintain function for several patient populations such as

• Dementia
• Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI)
• Stroke

References

Search Google Scholar for peer-reviewed, published research using the Inquisit Do You Remember/Husker Du Game.

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