How the Equalture Fish Discovery game works
Equalture does not publish how The Fish Discovery is played. It describes its games’ tasks in general as things like remembering a pattern or adapting when the rules change, and it records every move you make, not only the final answer.
What it does publish is the measure. The game reads working memory capacity, which Equalture links to learning: taking in something new and applying it within a set time. The result runs from lower to higher, and for some employers learning ability turns out to be one of the strongest signs of who does well in the job.
How to learn a hidden rule quickly
Games that make you learn as you go reward a tidy way of testing ideas:
- Hold one guess at a time, about one feature, and test it on the next few items.
- Use the feedback on every item. A wrong answer tells you as much as a right one.
- When two items differ in only one feature and get different answers, that feature is in the rule.
- When a rule that was working starts failing, drop it at once. Two wrong answers in a row after a run of right ones usually mean the rule has changed.
- Keep the current rule in words in your head, such as striped ones in. Saying it keeps it in working memory.
Worked example
Fish arrive one at a time, and each one must be kept or released. A large blue striped fish: you keep it, and that is right. A small blue plain fish: you keep it, and that is wrong. Colour cannot be the rule, because both were blue. Size or pattern can.
Next, a large red plain fish: you keep it, and that is wrong. So size is out and the rule is about the stripes. A small red striped fish confirms it when keeping it is right. Four fish to a firm rule, by changing one idea at a time.
Tips for the real Fish Discovery game
- Read the instruction screens closely. They are the only description of the task you will get.
- Play somewhere quiet. Working memory is the first thing distraction takes away.
- Do not count on a rule lasting. Expect the game to ask you to learn something new.
- Keep going after a run of mistakes. Recovering quickly is part of what the game reads.
Practise the Fish Discovery on CogniPrep
Catch Rules is our own design built on Equalture’s description of the skill. For 3 minutes, fish appear one at a time and you press Keep or Release. A hidden rule about colour, pattern, size or tail decides which is right. Five correct in a row learns a rule, then a new one is announced; later rules combine two features and need eight in a row. We score the number of rules you learn, with fewer fish needed breaking a tie.