🧠Basic Cognitive Functions
General reasoning warm-up
A short mixed warm-up: verbal analogies, simple number series, figural odd-one-out and everyday deduction.
How to approach it: Read each item once, decide what kind of relationship is being tested, then answer. Speed matters less than identifying the relationship correctly.
🧩Matrix & Inductive Reasoning
Rule discovery in abstract figures
Matrix-style and sequence items where you infer the rule that governs rows, columns or frames and pick the missing element.
How to approach it: Scan rows first, then columns. State the rule in words ('count grows by one across, shape changes down') before you look at the options.
🔢Numerical Flexibility
Calculation and symbol arithmetic
Mental arithmetic, proportional reasoning and calculation where symbols stand in for unknown values.
How to approach it: Substitute symbols with letters, write the two equations down, then solve. Estimate first so an implausible answer stands out.
📐2D Visualisation
Flat shapes, fit and area
Fitting pieces into gaps, tiling, mirroring and comparing flat figures without a physical model.
How to approach it: Work with measurements, not impressions: read off the width and height of the gap, then find the piece that matches both.
🧊3D Orientation & Mental Rotation
Rotating solids and reading maps
Mental rotation of figures, cube nets, block counting and orientation on an abstract map with a fixed north.
How to approach it: Rotate, never flip, unless the item says otherwise. Fix a reference feature and track where it must land.
👁️Visual Recognition & Memory
Timed displays, answered from memory
A display appears for a few seconds, then disappears; you answer from memory. Trains encoding and recognition of abstract material.
How to approach it: While the display is visible, name what you see silently ('circle, square, triangle…') and note anything unusual. Naming beats staring.
🗂️Working Memory & Sequences
Block-tapping and span recall
Hold and manipulate short sequences: recall a tapping order on a grid, reverse a span, or carry interim results through several steps.
How to approach it: Convert positions into a short verbal code (letters or a simple story) and rehearse it. Reversal is easier from a code than from a picture.
🎯Selective Attention
Targets among distractors
Find or count defined targets in a crowded field while ignoring similar distractors — differential attention practice.
How to approach it: Fix the target definition in words first, then sweep the field in one consistent direction. Never sample randomly.
🧵Sustained Attention & Perceptual Speed
Tracing, pursuit and monotone watch
Follow tangled paths to their endpoints, work through weighted route maps, and reason about performance during long monotonous monitoring.
How to approach it: Trace one path at a time to its end before starting the next; do not switch lines mid-trace.
⏱️Reaction & Response Inhibition
Go / no-go rule discipline
Practice on the logic of speeded responding: respond to targets, withhold on non-targets, and balance speed against false alarms.
How to approach it: Decide what counts as a target before you look at the stimulus. Withholding is an answer, not a failure to answer.
🔀Multi-Tasking Capacity
Two demands at once
Handle a primary task while monitoring a secondary stream: sampling rhythm, prioritisation and channel conflict.
How to approach it: Give the higher-priority rule the first look, then sample the second stream on a fixed rhythm rather than whenever it feels loud.
🔁Rule Switching & Interference
Conflicting cues and changing rules
Apply the current rule when a competing cue pulls the other way, and switch rules cleanly between steps.
How to approach it: Say the active rule to yourself immediately before answering, especially in the first step after a switch.
⚖️Work-Style Judgement
Non-clinical situational choices
Everyday work situations about calm decision-making, conscientiousness, safety-aware choices, teamwork and staying steady under pressure. Preference practice only — not a personality or clinical measure.
How to approach it: Choose the response a reliable, safety-aware colleague would defend afterwards — not the fastest or the most popular one.
