Can You Draw in a Mirror?

weirdly accurate.

Can You Draw in a Mirror?

Can you draw in a mirror?

Yes, but not well at first — and you get better fast. In a 2018 study by Bressel and colleagues, 31 adults tracing a metal star in a mirror took a median 26 seconds and slipped out of the track 9 times on their first try, then were on average 21% faster by their third try and about 41% faster by their fifth. This mirror drawing test lets you watch that learning happen in your own hand.

You move the pen by dragging anywhere, like a trackpad, and the mirror flips the movement: right becomes left. An untimed try-out comes first, then four levels and six laps — a square, a circle, three laps of the star Brenda Milner used in 1962, and finally the star in a mirror turned the other way, so up becomes down. Each lap is timed from the pen’s first move until it is back at the start, and a slip counts every time the pen leaves the lane, the rule used by the lab’s automatic star tracer. Unfinished laps (90 seconds on the star, 45 on the square and circle, or ended by you) are scored by pace. Your learning is the time saved from your first star lap to your third, set beside the lab adults’ 21%; the flipped star shows how much of the skill carried over.

It is a short version and not a ranking: lab studies run ten tries or more, their stars, tracks and slip rules differ, and your first star lap comes after a try-out and two warm-up shapes. The four result types are our own cut-offs. It is not a medical or neurological test, and a slow lap says nothing about your brain’s health.

What the test measures

One thing: how quickly your hand learns a movement the mirror has turned backwards.

The task

  • Mirror tracing, the task Brenda Milner gave the patient H.M. in 1962: keep the pen inside a double-lined shape seen only in a mirror
  • An untimed try-out, then a square and a circle, three laps of the star, and the star again with the mirror flipped up–down
  • Relative movement: drag anywhere and the pen moves the mirrored way; with a mouse, click once to lock the pointer
  • A slip counts each time the pen leaves the lane; the lane is narrowest on the star

Your result

  • How much faster your third star lap was than your first, next to the lab adults’ 21%
  • Your first star lap beside the lab’s first try (median 26 s, 9 slips) and an online mouse study’s 44% of line kept inside
  • What the flipped mirror cost you, and your slips lap by lap
  • A verdict after every lap, and one of four types — quick learner, unfazed, steady, still learning
  • A shareable card with your third star lap and a link that challenges a friend to trace faster

Before you start

  • About four minutes; free, no sign-up
  • A finger on a phone or tablet, a mouse, or the arrow keys
  • Drag below the mirror so your finger doesn’t cover the shape
  • Your laps stay on your device; a challenge link carries only your first and third star laps’ times and the first one’s slips, after the # in the address

Mirror drawing FAQ

Is this test free? Do I need to sign up to see my result?

Yes, it’s free, and there’s nothing to sign up for: no account, no email, no payment. Your result appears on this page the moment you finish, and you can share it or play again straight away.

What is the mirror drawing test?

The mirror drawing test, or mirror tracing, asks you to trace a shape while you can see it and your hand only in a mirror. It became famous in 1962, when Brenda Milner gave it to H.M., a man who could no longer form new memories: he got better over ten trials and kept the skill across three days, yet never remembered doing the task (Squire, 2009).

How long does mirror tracing take the first time?

In Bressel and colleagues’ 2018 lab study, 31 adults tracing a metal star with a stylus took a median 26.2 seconds on their first try, with a median of 9 slips; the slowest took 57.5 seconds. In an online study with a mouse and an up–down mirror, Cusack and colleagues (2015) found people kept about 44% of their line inside the drawing, and nobody passed 80%.

How quickly do people get better at mirror drawing?

Quickly. In the Bressel et al. (2018) land group, the average first try took 30.2 seconds, the third 24.0 and the fifth 17.9, and by the eighth try people were about 51% faster than at the start, with fewer slips too. This test’s three star laps cover the steep first part of that curve.

Why is drawing in a mirror so hard?

Your brain predicts where each movement will take the pen, and the mirror reverses only one direction. On a slanted edge half of your movement is right and half is backwards, and every correction is reversed too, so the line tends to zig-zag off just when you try to fix it. That is why the test starts with a square, whose edges each need one rule, and ends on the star.

Does age affect mirror tracing?

Yes, on the first try. In Garrido and colleagues’ 2026 study of 210 adults aged 16 to 79, older people took longer and slipped more on their first attempt at a star. That study reports the direction of the effect rather than age norms, so this test gives no age-based ranking.

Is the mirror drawing test a test of memory or brain health?

No. H.M.’s story shows that learning a skill and remembering an event rely on different memory systems, but a few minutes of tracing on a screen can’t diagnose anything. A slow lap says nothing about your brain’s health; if you are worried about your memory or coordination, talk to a doctor.

Where the numbers come from

There is no population table for mirror tracing on a phone or mouse, so results are set beside reference points, not ranked. The lab figures for tries 1, 2, 3, 5 and 8 are our own tabulation of the land group in Bressel et al.’s S1 Table. The site does not publish its own players’ data.