Card Sorting

About the Card Sorting exercise

A familiar way of doing something stops working: the bus takes a new route, the phone menu has moved, the usual recipe no longer turns out. Noticing that the old way has stopped working, letting it go and finding the new one is part of flexible thinking, and some days it takes real effort.

Card Sorting is a free online version of the classic card sorting task. Four key cards sit along the top, and each new card goes on the pile it matches. The screen only ever says Matches or Doesn't match, so the rule (by color, by shape or by number) has to be worked out from that, and after a run of matches the rule changes. Each round ends with plain counts: rules found, cards to find the first one, and times the previous rule was kept after a change.

What is a card sorting test?

A card sorting test asks a person to sort cards that differ in color, shape and number without being told how. The only clue is whether each card matches, and after a run of matches the rule changes without warning. It began with Esther Berg's 1946 master's thesis at the University of Wisconsin, approved by David A. Grant, and their two papers of 1948. Brenda Milner made it famous in 1963, and Hazel Nelson made a gentler version in 1976 that tells the person when the rule changes.

It is not the user experience research method also called card sorting, in which people group the topics of a website. In psychology the task is used to study how people form a rule from feedback and switch when it stops working, often called set shifting or cognitive flexibility. Staying with the old rule after a change has a name in that research: perseveration.

What Card Sorting practices

Working out a rule from feedback

Nothing says how to sort. Each Matches or Doesn't match narrows the choices until one way fits.

Holding a rule in mind

Once a way works, the task is to keep to it card after card through a run of matches, without drifting to another way.

Letting go when it stops working

After a change the old way stops matching. Noticing that, and dropping a way that worked a moment ago, is the heart of the task.

Switching to a new rule

Trying the other ways in turn and settling on the one that matches, then holding that one until it changes too.

How the tool works and what it records

Four key cards, one purple star, two yellow circles, three blue triangles and four red squares, sit above four piles. Every card dealt matches each key card in one way at most, so each tap follows exactly one way, or none. Three free presets take away one kind of help at a time: two ways with the ways on screen and a note at each change (5 matches before a change, 24 cards), three ways with a note at each change (6 matches, 36 cards), and three ways with no note (8 matches, 48 cards). Pro opens the dials: the ways in play (color and shape, shape and number, or all three), 3 to 10 matches before a change, 24 to 64 cards, four levels of help from naming the way on each match to nothing more, and the order of the rules, in turn or mixed. Large print, high contrast and sound (soft tones or spoken words) are free.

A round fills the window with a card table. The person taps the pile a card goes with, the card travels to its pile, and the screen says Matches or Doesn't match. There is no clock on screen, and Pause is always there. At the end come plain counts: rules found, cards to find the first rule, times the previous rule was kept after a change, runs that stopped partway, cards that matched and the typical time per card, with a card-by-card table for the clinician. A free account gives 5 rounds a day on each tool and one round a day with every dial; Pro adds unlimited rounds, a PDF round record, the session log and home practice links.

Card sorting instructions

A round takes two to five minutes. The same steps apply to every preset:

1. Choose a round. Two ways, with help is the gentlest place to start.
2. Read the short How it works card, then tap to start.
3. A card appears at the bottom. Tap the pile at the top that it goes with.
4. The screen says Matches or Doesn't match. Use that to work out the rule.
5. After a run of matches the rule changes. Find the new one and carry on until the cards run out.
6. At the end, read the counts. Pause at any time; nothing is lost.

Screen or paper?

There is no card sorting pack in the shop yet. On paper the task needs a printed deck and a partner who says matches or not after every card and changes the rule at the right moment; the screen does both, keeps the counts and deals a fresh deck every round. A familiar clinic version uses an ordinary deck of playing cards, sorted by suit, color or number and switched on a cue.

There is a executive function worksheets for adults on rehabworksheets.com, with printable practice to try alongside.

Using it well

• Start with two ways. The first preset uses color and shape only, keeps the ways on screen and puts a note up at each change. Move on when finding each new rule feels steady.
• Say the rule out loud. Naming the rule before placing a card (by color, by shape) and saying why a card went where it did both help a person notice when the rule stops working.
• Use Doesn't match as a clue. The first card that doesn't match after a change is how anyone finds out the rule has moved. It is part of the task, not a slip.
• Keep rounds short. A 24 card round takes about two minutes. Two short rounds fit better than one long one, and Pause is always on the screen.
• Talk about where rules change. After a round, talk about where the day has rules that change without warning, such as a timetable, a menu or a route, and what helps notice the change.

Common questions