My Lit Review

The most popular forms of puzzling at the moment are crossword puzzles and sudoku. In recent years, these activities, those which exercise the brain, have become the “it” activity (Zhang). However, studies have shown that the kind of repetitive puzzling that crossword puzzles provide do not “suggest that amount of crossword puzzle experience reduces age-related decreases in fluid cognition or enhances age-related increases in crystallized cognition.” (Hambrick). What can be done to help return puzzles to being a source of mental training? Research has suggested two possible methods to accomplish this goal.

Firstly, following directions could take a back seat to critical thinking skills. A puzzling group called Atlas Shrugged made a presentation lauding the values of far more instructionless puzzles: as they say “part of the puzzle is figuring out what to do” (Shrugged). These puzzles often look a lot more confusing, as they are typically strings of data with only a title (and potentially some text) to help one out. Such puzzles can be found by looking at the MIT Mystery Hunt or the Berkeley Mystery Hunt (who often write an easier directionless puzzle for the newspaper each week).

Secondly, crossword puzzles can be made more varied. This would take an interesting middle ground; two puzzle constructors who have approached said middle ground are Patrick Berry and David Kwong. Patrick Berry often turns the theme into a second puzzle; after you do the first part, you often have to find some connection between some of the words in the puzzle to figure out the final answer; sometimes, the clues are also intentionally worded oddly to think about the puzzle in a completely new light. David Kwong, on the other hand, combines crossword puzzles and magic to present them completely differently. He often uses “crossword puzzle magic tricks” to turn crossword puzzles into a completely different ball park. Admittedly, this trains the constructor more than the solver, but it does demonstrate how crossword construction teaches critical thinking skills.