Get Your Brain Working With Thinking Puzzles

There are many people who pride themselves on their ability to do thinking puzzles, or puzzles completed in one’s head. It can be surprising to the uninitiated how much more the level of difficulty increases simply by leaving pen and paper out of the puzzling process. But in fact, it is much more difficult to complete a thinking puzzle than a regular pen and paper puzzle. This is due in part to the fact that it can be very difficult to track the different aspects of a problem in one’s mind, while simultaneously attempting to solve the problem or make connections between the various components of the problem. As many people can attest, it is far simpler to work out sums on a piece of paper while doing a math puzzle or a logic puzzle, than it is to discover the answer through dint of sheer, unaided mental power. People complete thinking puzzles for a number of different reasons. For some people, thinking puzzles are an interesting diversion when they do not have a pen and paper handy, or a way to add diversity to their puzzles solving repertoire. For others, thinking puzzles can be a great way to help keep the mind sharp and mentally active, or a way to challenge themselves when conventional pen and paper puzzles have become too simple. Thinking puzzles also can be a great tool for scientists to model and understand how humans think. One such study, done in an attempt to gain a greater understanding of how humans solve problems, was called The Human Sudoku Project. It consisted of study participants in numbered jerseys acting as the “puzzle pieces” in a giant sudoku puzzle board. Researchers hope to use the data they gathered from this project in order to create computers which can process information in much the same way as human brains do.