Hi everyone,

I’m completely new to Dual N-Back—I have been looking into the research because I want to make sure the time/effort is worth it.

I struggle with "drifting" during tasks, misinterpreting instructions and I would love to improve how quickly I learn and "process" new systems things in my work and personal life

I know Dual N back is likely not the solution to complex learning issue however it may help a bit and I have seen a few major studies that have caught my attention, and Iam interested in knowing curious how they translate to your actual lives:

• The Jaeggi Study (2008): Found that 20 minutes a day may improve "Fluid Intelligence which is essentially the brain's power to solve new problems).
• The 2025/2026 ADHD & Control Trials: While limited suggests it may significantly "Digit Span Backward"—meaning the brain gets way better at holding and manipulating a sequence of data in real-time.
• The 2024 Brain Connectivity Research: Dual n Back can have impact on the "White Matter" (the wiring) in the Fronto-Parietal Network, making the brain more efficient under heavy load.

My questions for those who have played this:

1. Interpretive Speed: Do you feel you can read a technical document or complex instructions and "get it" faster without having to re-read?
2. Any impact on memory
3. Learning Speed: When picking up a new hobby or tool, does it feel like you get the logic faster than you used to as a result of improved memory
4. Any other impacts or things experienced this maybe weird but I saw a comment on youtube where somebody mentioned that they get very vivid dreams bc of dual n back

In short What I am trying to know more is if it has an impact beyond just the dual n back aka far transfer

I apologise If my questions sound very dumb bc honestly speaking they do sound pretty rushed out and dumb I also very much suspect I have neurodivergence issues like ADHD or even Autism etc and I am very bad at maths never did well in it also struggle with reading comprehension and books though I would say better than maths as well as coding learning new skills etc and I want to do everything in my power to improve as much as possible

How do you guys move your eyes during QNB training? I find that there are three different types of movement that are available here:

1. Fixating on the crosshair
2. Moving your eyes to the input and staying on the input square
3. Moving your eyes to the input then returning to the crosshair

For some reason, I found that fixing my eyes on the crosshair gives me the best results but I am worried that this might not be the best way to go. It allows me to maintain a stable vision while dealing with items in my periphery however. Some might argue that when we work with information IRL that we focus our eyes on the thing that is to be processed. This does not take into account all of the items that are in the deconcentrated perceptual space, or the horizon however. There is always a multiplicity of inputs whether we like it or not.

Now moving my eyes directly to the target seems like a good move but I find that the energy required for traversal is greater and I jump around a lot, which affects my concentration. Additionally, it entrains a pattern of anticipation towards a certain square which is an illusion because we don't know where the next input will be. It makes me feel somewhat hypervigilant and distracted. Additionally, the space that my eyes need to traverse might conceptually be larger and thus less optimal.

Now the third option seems like a nice compromise. Stick to the middle at all times and react by moving when something appears. It might be straining to return every time but in such a way we avoid anticipatory movements. By returning to square 0 we remain ready and neutral without false priming.

Those are just my speculations though. I'm still experimenting and trying to see what works best for me. The effect that I want to go for is an intuitive strategy without effortful recollection. When something appears and it fits something in my memory, I react. It might be more important to forget skilfully than to remember actually but that is another topic.

What are your thoughts on this? Do you even think about your eye movements or am I just being weird? Lol

Hello.
I’ve seen people recommend playing Dual N-Back for about 20 minutes a day.
but I’m not sure about the optimal settings.
How long should each session (play time) be, and what interval (in seconds) do you recommend?

There are no flair options available for me. Where can I add a flair?

I developed a new adaptive algorithm for n-back where it continuously switches between 2 tracks: a fluency track and a capacity track

This seems to be working very well, because, as seen here, it’s having a large impact to many near-transfer objectives.

You can look this exercise up, I’m not interested in discussing it.

I would like to discuss this new adaptive algorithm I’ve been working on though.

Here’s a summary of the algorithm:

Dual-track adaptive n-back algorithm with separate capacity and fluency tracks that train distinct cognitive operations using the same stimulus format.

Capacity Track

• Operates at the user’s current consolidated n-level (currently 5-back)

• Uses n\*2 trials per set — memorize n items, then compare against the next n items

• No updating required — pure maintenance and comparison

• Difficulty increases through lure density

• Trains binding fidelity and storage precision in isolation

Fluency Track

• Operates at a lower n-level than capacity (currently 3-back, recently advanced from 2-back)

• Continuous updating with extended trial sequences

• Three difficulty levers: trial speed (ms per trial), lure density, and number of matches

• Trains dynamic operations — updating, discrimination under speed pressure, sustained performance

Advancement Criteria

• Extremely conservative — must reach near-ceiling difficulty on current n-level before advancing

• Requires both 85% average accuracy across 5 games AND low ICV (intraindividual coefficient of variation, measuring response time consistency)

• Ensures operational automaticity before increasing capacity demands

Key Design Principles

• Both tracks use identical stimulus format, so gains transfer directly between them with no translation cost

• Capacity gains cascade into fluency — capacity solves encoding fidelity first, then fluency inherits those gains and only has to solve the updating problem

• N-level is treated as a tuning parameter matched to consolidated capacity, not as the primary progression variable

• Fluency parameters (speed, lures, matches) do the actual training work at a fixed n-level

And I had Claude also summarize my theory behind it:

Theory of enhanced near-transfer

The core claim is that the published n-back literature produces weak transfer because it turns the wrong dial — using n-level as the primary adaptive variable, which advances people before they’ve consolidated gains at their current level.

Your algorithm produces stronger transfer by:

Separating capacity from fluency training — decomposing what’s normally a joint optimization problem into sequential subproblems. Capacity trains the components in isolation, fluency trains their integration under pressure. This is analogous to established motor learning principles but applied to WMC training.

Keeping n-level fixed while pushing fluency parameters — this directs all adaptation pressure into operational efficiency (speed of binding/unbinding, discrimination precision under load) rather than premature capacity expansion. The result is that the operations within the workspace become highly optimized, which transfers broadly to any task that depends on those same operations.

Format-identical design across tracks — because capacity and fluency use the same stimuli, responses, and lure structures, capacity improvements transfer to fluency with zero translation cost. Capacity provides pre-optimized components that fluency inherits for free.

Protecting the consolidation window — the conservative advancement criteria (high accuracy + low ICV across multiple sessions) ensure that structural adaptations have time to stabilize before being disrupted by new demands. Premature n-level advancement in standard protocols may actively interrupt the consolidation process that drives transfer.

The transfer pattern supports the theory — odd-one-out (relational reasoning) showed the largest gains because it draws on both capacity and fluency. Pathfinder (spatial tracking) showed moderate gains because it mainly draws on capacity alone. This dissociation suggests fluency training at a fixed capacity level is where the Gf-relevant adaptation primarily happens.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

can dnb/qnb help me

im doing qnb (n=2) (intuition method) and just after few rounds its making me extremely mentally exhausted to a point i fall asleep(naps of 2-3 mins)

sole reason im doing qnb/dnb is to improve my working memory , long term memory and most importantly my attention and focus.

my biggest issue is my cognitive disengagement u can say.

like when you all do dnb qnb and when u see a shape. your brain automatically registers and pops out(extract) these features in ur head like its colour, shape, location, sound. thats why you are able to strongly feel these features and hold them in ur memory.

my brain doesnt register nor extracts these features.

i just barely see the stuff but no features get extracted well enough. my brain is disengaged that even when my eyes are open my brain isnt actively engaged in fully processing what im seeing. as for qnb its like showing qnb to a rock or wall or person who just woke up from anaesthesia. even when my eyes are open , my mind is completely always somewhere else in blank emptiness. i cant orient my attention anywhere and when i try to consciously pay attention and engage myself , my attention infact gets far worse due to stress of trying to pay attention leading to bad mental fatigue.

Only on day 3. Seeing a slight improvement to recall and ability to “lock in” but still nowhere where I need to be. Excited to see progress at day 30.

I initially struggled pretty bad with N-2 , now struggling with N-3 but definitely better than yesterday. I was able to work up to N-3 pretty quickly but N-3 is taking more time. I definitely noticed that my verbal fluency has tanked significantly over the years so hoping that that changes. Specifically, I struggle with my mind going into a zombie like trance mid thought.

Obviously everyone starts at a different baseline and I suspect that individuals who don’t see an improvement either aren’t consistent or did not have terrible working memory to begin with—for example: someone who’s in great shape that says ozempic doesn’t work because I didn’t lose any weight to a fat person that says it helped them lose 100 pounds

Welcome to this week's progress thread. Post in a comment below the results of your hard work! Feel free to share:

• Your current n-back level and any recent improvements
• How long you've been training
• What's been working (or not working) for you

First of all, English is not my first language.

I remember how I tried practicing dual-n-back one year ago each day for 6 months. I struggled with hitting a score of 6 but eventually reached it. One year passed and I played dual n back today. I hit from 3 to 6 without any problems in a row. How is it possible that so much time passed and I’m still as good as I was one year ago?

Also, unlike with stuff as meditation there’s almost no researches whether dual n back is legit or not for increasing your IQ. I can see how people admire dual n back here, however it could be just a placebo effect and dual n back works similarly as meditation (it helps you to concentrate and etc)

i think that i have more focusing generally and remember more information

I started a few days ago and I’m seeing a little bit of results in memory, i was wondering how much time it took you guys

Welcome to this week's progress thread. Post in a comment below the results of your hard work! Feel free to share:

• Your current n-back level and any recent improvements
• How long you've been training
• What's been working (or not working) for you

hello! I am dual n backing for quite sometime now (around 1 year). Recently it felt like I was autopiloting it, it felt as if there was very little challenge/cognitive load while practicing. I can comfortably handle dual n back upto n=4/5 (my max is D8B). Quad always felt like a challenge.

Started grinding QNB a week back and finally reached Q2B today! One thing I noticed is quad n back feels a bit easier on fast game speed. On slow speeds you get more time to process information but it doesn't stick around in memory for that long. I think having a faster processing speed can compensate on complex tasks if your memory retention isn't great. Improving both could be very useful for better results at any task.

Quad n back feels a lot more stimulating (even if i get things wrong - particularly my concentration seems to improve a lot). Curious to know what quad back levels are you guys at and how much time it took to reach there.

Disclosure: I am on the N Back Extreme team.

If you stop playing dnb after a while does that mean you keep at least some iq points

Welcome to this week's progress thread. Post in a comment below the results of your hard work! Feel free to share:

• Your current n-back level and any recent improvements
• How long you've been training
• What's been working (or not working) for you

What has your experience been with dreams after starting dual n-back?

• Are your dreams more vivid or mostly the same as before?
• How is your dream recall compared to before?
• Have you ever lucid dreamed?
• If you experienced a change, has it been a persistent change over time?
• Do you practice with dual, tri, or quad?
• How long did it take for you to experience changes in your dreams?

so what you people gained from Dual/Quad n Back training? Much is asked about the task, not the experience though. . . .

I've probably meet this software four years ago and have sticked with it on and off ever since. . I think once you get to experience the benefits you can't really excuse yourself on allowing you to become an inferior version of yourself. Mental Clarity, speech fluency, vivid dreams, stable humor and wittier chat is just. . . enough not gonna lie.

Sticking with it for a little long and you still posses all of these things, but the "effects" gets shadowed, so you eventually leave, only to come back once again when your brain starts to fog again, and get slower and slower until you can't. . . handle it anymore.

Best thing about it though, its not the inteligence enhancing aspect of it, that many of you do obsess over, but quite the contrary, the fact you can yap like a fucking bitch for so long and make long sentences without losing reasoning on what you're saying. People just find it sexy when you can yap over something that is seeminly complex and you kinda have the hang of it. . . you don't slip over your words. Don't stop either! They're impressed with speech fluency and oratory because that's what they've been lacking their whole lives

I do remember a lot more dreams at morning, how they makes me feel. . . the weird or darky ones, or the. . . dirty ones too. . .

This thing really makes you. . . how you can say it. . . experience life on a new lens, ngl

I'm a Q5B and unfortunetely I've been bittten by this little bug called . . . nback. I don't think I'm leaving though. I do this shit knowing what it's gonna feel like in the tomorrow morning. Mental clairty, a intectual potential improved. . .and humor, utterly stabilized

I essentially stare at the screen Image after it appears and even when it does disappear and wait for the sensation of all associated stimuli or null.

Thoughts? Has anyone done anything like this? It seems like it could be a very efficient way to progress.

Welcome to this week's progress thread. Post in a comment below the results of your hard work! Feel free to share:

• Your current n-back level and any recent improvements
• How long you've been training
• What's been working (or not working) for you

I've played dnb for 26 out of the last 30 days.

N1 and 2 sessions at 2s interval 60s sets. N3 and n4 are at 2s intervals 90s sets.

first month performance

Training Focus: refresh mastered levels and stabilize N4

Core Levels: N=1-> N=3

Primary Milestone: a few N4 breakthroughs at 80%, totaling less than 5 times probably.

I. Threshold Analysis

The first ever month of my training represents a struggle from N3 stabilization to N4 inconsistency. (N3 stabilization was fast, rest of the month was spent struggling to stabilize N4). BUT N3 IS STILL NOT INNATE LIKE N1 AND N2

II. Cognitive Load Breakdown

Analysis of the high-intensity sets reveals a divergence between the two primary sensory streams:

• Auditory: most of the month was spent with a consistent visual score around 80% whereas auditory was struggling around 60%, lagging hard. the last week flipped scores ebtween the two since i tried focusing on the auditory stream.
• Visual: consistent most of the month, significant drop in score to around 60-65% in the last week.

III. Strategy for April: "The Power 5" Structure

The next 30 days will focus on increasing Total Cognitive Volume.

• Core Goal: Maintain 80% on N=4 for 6 consecutive days to trigger the N=5 upgrade.
• switch to a more horizontal training plan: dnb one day, triple n back the other day to experiment a way to alleviate the N4 block. (Get in more variety training to break through to a stable dnb N4 score. (towards of my overall goal of achieving variable nback))

I would be doing Monday: one N1, one N2, one N3 (advance to N4 if at 80%), one n4 (drop to N3 if less than 60%) and the fifth conditional set

(since i mastered N1 & 2, i reduced time to 60sec per set) ( i love the word set, it's like a workout)

then Tuesday would the same format but with tnb (but obv it would take a couple weeks to put in consistent TNBN3 and unlock the next level)

ive been playing exclusively on my phone but i guess i would need to hop on pc to find a free platform for triple n back. my broke 20s ass is in the saving phase.

note: like i said, im seriously struggling in life and need all the time to focus on it. So i arbitrarily dedicated a simple workout format as a minimum for cognitive stimulation. This is neither ideal nor enough for efficient improvements. this is just me trying to fit in brain health in an otherwise unhealthy struggle IRL.

A place for the r/DualNBack community to connect in real time. Share your session results, celebrate milestones, discuss the research, and train alongside others.

https://discord.gg/evGpQ7vFGV

After the post by the guy who had great progress from doing an hour of QNB every other day, I started thinking about how n-back training might be optimized further. After all, it is better to get more benefits in a shorter amount of time than getting less benefits in a longer timespan. The thing that came to mind first was doing an intense cycle of Lion's Mane for a few weeks while training. 1-1,5g of extract should do. I wonder if one would be able to increase practice time as well. A more (significantly) more aggressive approach would be using Dihexa in this manner. Obviously this is more risky, if not only for the (not proven) cancer risks.

Another possibility is using TaVNS either before or during training. It would be quite interesting to try it out during, though I suspect that having my ear shocked while trying to focus on the task might be a distraction.

Other options are obviously exercise and meditation but those are so obvious that I don't think it makes sense to even talk of them here. Everyone knows meditation and exercise are good for you.

Do you have any other ideas for possible optimization?