Canny Minds Blog » Word Games

Never a cross word

Jenny — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 14:29:13 +0000

Doing crosswords or sudoku puzzles can help couples to make up more quickly after arguments, according to new research.
Psychologists from Harvard University said that stimulating mental activity can stop people from harbouring a grudge following a domestic row.
They discovered that emotions were better controlled by people who had more activity in the part of the brain (the lateral prefrontal cortex ) which is associated with puzzle solving.

Daily Telegraph March 11 2010

Photo Courtesy of Jessie Whittle

The Colour Test!

Jenny — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 12:22:49 +0000

These are the things we’re supposed to do to remove the cholesterol around our brain and try to slow up Alzheimer’s Disease. This is a great test…see how many times it takes you to get 100%! – it takes an average of 5 times.

Click below to start the test:

Bananagrams (playable with Scrabble tiles)

Jenny — Mon, 07 Sep 2009 15:33:45 +0000

1. Step 1
Take all of the 144 tiles out of the Bananagrams/Scrabble bag and flip them face down on the table. This pile of tiles is called the “BUNCH”.
2. Step 2
Depending on the number of players, each player takes a certain amount of letters from the bunch.
2-4 players: 21 letters
5-6 players: 16 letters
6 players plus: 11 letters
3. Step 3
Once all players have their tiles, one player says “SPLIT”. All players turn their tiles face up and start to create their own words. The words must connect and intersect the way they do in a crossword puzzle or Scrabble. The words must be read from left to right or top to bottom.
4. Step 4
Players play independently / on their own and at the same time, creating their own group of words. They can arrange and rearrange their words as often as they like.
5. Step 5
When a player has used all of his/her tiles, he/she calls “PEEL” and everyone has to take another tile from the bunch.
6. Step 6
If a player decides that a letter is impossible to play, he/she can put it back to the bunch but in return has to pick three new tiles. He/she has to announce that action by saying “DUMP”.
7. Step 7
The play ends when there are less tiles in the bunch then players in the game. The first player to use all of his/her remaining tiles calls “BANANAS” and is declared the preliminary winner of the game or “hand”. The other players can then double check whether the word combination of the winning hand are correct by using a dictionary. If all words are correct and acceptable, the player is declared the “WINNER OF THE HAND”.
8. Step 8
If there are spelling mistakes or words are considered unacceptable (e.g. proper nouns), the player is declared a “ROTTEN BANANA” and is “OUT OF THE HAND”. His/her tiles are then returned to the bunch and the Bananagrams game resumes.

To buy this Scrabble game click here

Photo courtesy of Leo Reynolds

Crosswords ‘can delay memory loss’

Jenny — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 10:16:53 +0000

Researchers from Albert Einstein College of Medicine, in New York, found that performing a mental exercise twice a day could help delay the rapid memory loss associated with dementia for more than a year.

Keeping the brain active through hobbies such as crosswords, puzzles, reading, writing and playing card games, can all postpone the start of symptoms of the condition.

The findings add to a growing body of evidence that exercising the brain can help to protect against the disease in later life.

Experts warn that the number of people affected by dementia will spiral in coming decades, in part because of an ageing population.

Researchers looked at activities including crossword puzzles, playing board or card games, talking in groups, playing music, or even simply reading or writing.

They found that people aged between 75 and 85 who did an average of 11 of the activities every week tended to experience memory problems almost one year and four months later into the progression of the disease than those who did just four a week.

“The effect of these activities in late life appears to be independent of education,” said Charles Hall, who led the study. “These activities might help maintain brain vitality.

“Further studies are needed to determine if increasing participation… could prevent or delay dementia.”
The researchers found that for every additional activity an older person undertook a week the onset of rapid memory loss characteristic of the condition was delayed by an average of just over two months.

The study followed 488 older people over a five-year period, during which 101 of them developed dementia.
On average people who went on to develop the condition did one of the six activities every day, according to the findings, published in the journal Neurology.

The findings reinforce the idea that “cognitive reserve” could be built up by taking part in activities that exercise the brain.

Rebecca Wood, chief executive of the Alzheimer’s Research Trust, said:

“This study shows that exercising the brain may delay the start of memory loss in people who develop dementia.

“This adds to the ‘use it or lose it’ hypothesis that we can reap the benefits of stimulating our minds regularly, perhaps by doing crosswords, playing chess or adding up the shopping before getting to the till.

“Dementia risk can be reduced by eating a healthy diet, whilst keeping an active body and mind.

“With more research we may be able to find ways of preventing dementia. 1.4 million people in the UK will develop dementia within a generation, so we need to invest now.”

Around 700,000 people in Britain currently suffer from dementia, of which around 400,000 have Alzheimer’s, the most common form.

By Kate Devlin, Medical Correspondent, The Daily Telegraph 4th August 2009

Photo courtesy of Off beat mum