The 8 cognitive dimensions we track — and why a single 'IQ' score misses everything that matters
When we started designing WoW Brain's measurement layer, we had one option that would have been easier: give users a single composite score. "Your brain fitness is 78/100." One number, easy dashboard, satisfying to see it go up.
We didn't do that. This post is why.
The problem with composite scores
A composite score is the average of things that don't average well.
Your working memory can be climbing while your inhibitory control drops. Your processing speed can hold steady while your cognitive flexibility falls off a cliff. If we average them into one number, the number stays flat — and you have no idea what's actually happening.
The composite score also gives you nothing to do. If your "cognitive fitness" is 78, what should you train tomorrow? The number can't say. The 8 underlying dimensions can.
So we built the Cognitive Radar — 8 dimensions, tracked weekly, visible as a spider chart. Here's what each one is, why we picked it, and what to do when it moves.
The 8 dimensions
1. Working memory span
What it is: how many items you can hold at once while doing something else with them. Not just "remember 7 numbers"; "hold 7 numbers while reasoning about them."
Why it matters: everything else compounds on this. Planning, decision-making, reading comprehension, conversation quality — all bounded by span.
What to do when it drops: increase working memory workouts, decrease multitasking demand until the trainer catches up.
2. Processing speed
What it is: how fast you recognize, decide, and respond. Milliseconds matter.
Why it matters: slow processing costs you the meeting question you thought of 15 seconds after everyone moved on. It costs you the good decision when time is short.
What to do when it drops: often correlates with sleep debt. WoW Brain flags it and asks about sleep in the evening ritual.
3. Sustained attention
What it is: how long you can hold focus on a boring task before mind-wandering takes over.
Why it matters: this is the actual bottleneck behind "I can't concentrate anymore." Not distraction; span.
What to do when it drops: our data suggests 6 weeks of daily attention drills lifts the ceiling by 30-50%.
4. Selective attention
What it is: focus on the relevant signal while ignoring distraction. Different from sustained.
Why it matters: open-plan office, noisy commute, kids around. Selective attention keeps the primary task primary.
What to do when it drops: environmental audit first (headphones, phone away). Training second.
5. Cognitive flexibility
What it is: switching between tasks or mental frames without losing context. The cost of switching, minimized.
Why it matters: PMs, executives, parents, anyone with multi-context lives. Flexibility low = each switch drops working memory for 15 minutes.
What to do when it drops: fewer switches this week; specific flexibility workouts.
6. Inhibitory control
What it is: the executive function that lets you stop and evaluate before acting. The pause button.
Why it matters: decisions under fatigue rubber-stamp themselves. Inhibitory control is what stops that. Decision quality lives here.
What to do when it drops: often flags before you notice. WoW Brain suggests delaying big decisions to next week.
7. Verbal fluency
What it is: retrieval speed for words and concepts. Active recall, not recognition.
Why it matters: articulation in meetings, writing speed, the "tip of my tongue" phenomenon reversed.
What to do when it drops: verbal fluency drills. Reading fiction. Talking more.
8. Visuospatial working memory
What it is: holding spatial arrangements in mind. The overlap between verbal working memory and spatial reasoning.
Why it matters: designers, architects, PMs holding roadmap layouts, salespeople reading rooms. Underrated.
What to do when it drops: visuospatial drills; drawing more; putting things in space instead of lists.
Why weekly, not real-time
Cognitive form fluctuates day to day with sleep, stress, caffeine, and infection. Real-time tracking would show noise, not signal. Weekly averages surface the actual trend.
Users check the Radar every Sunday. Weekly delta shows which dimensions moved. If two dimensions drop for three weeks in a row, that's a pattern — not a bad Tuesday.
What we don't measure
Intelligence. We don't try. IQ tests are stable measurements of a stable construct. Cognitive Radar is about what changed this week and what you should do about it.
Motivation, mood, personality. Different domain. Adjacent products handle those. WoW Brain stays in the cognitive lane.
Everything at once. The Radar shows 8 dimensions because that's what matters most. There are 30+ cognitive functions the field studies. Adding more would give the user more data and less clarity.
The practical use
Every Sunday, spend 90 seconds looking at the Radar. Notice what moved. Adjust the sprint if needed. That's it.
If you want to see how the Cognitive Radar works, wow-brain.com has a 7-day free trial — no card required. First AI Neuro-Probe takes 5 minutes and sets your baseline. First Radar snapshot appears after your first workout.