Weekly Brain Challenge: Reading Order Into Chaos

Our daily goal is to make sense out of the world and sometimes that involves finding the meaning in what looks like chaos.  Good thing our brains are amazing cyphers!   Give this a try:

For emaxlpe, it deson’t mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod aepapr, the olny iprmoatnt tihng is taht the frist and lsat ltteer are in the rghit pcale. The rset can be a toatl mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit pobelrm.

S1M1L4RLY, Y0UR M1ND 15 R34D1NG 7H15 4U70M471C4LLY W17H0U7 3V3N 7H1NK1NG 4B0U7 17.

Researchers are getting closer to understanding the brain process that leads to individual differences in how brains crack code and allow us to read in cases like those above but no one quite gets the whole picture yet.   New research is focusing on how to use these differences to help people with dyslexia and other reading challenges.  That would be big.

We are celebrating the importance of words today in this 5 difference, Find the Difference puzzle — one of our all time favorites!

Pay attention to how you solve this puzzle.  How easy is it for you to over-ride your brain’s tendency to fill the meaning and over-look the differences?

Webster’s Dictionary was originally called the “American Dictionary of the English Language”. Today, the dictionary includes somewhere around 470,000 entries!

 

Number Searches, Sequences, and Puzzles

Today’s challenge is a variation on a word search puzzle.

Our brains seek out patterns to find the logic in what otherwise might look like chaos.     Words in a word search puzzle, create that logic.   When you do a word search puzzle you are relying on both your ability to remember and identify patterns.   In the exercise below you are not looking for logic but working on hard core memory.    Your goal is to find the number sequences listed below the puzzle.   We made the first one a bit easier — all the correct answers can be found on the diagonal and are listed from from left to right.

Get ready for a memory and focus workout!

Thanks for playing!

Wednesday’s Word Search: Heart Healthy Eating

“Search” for the Affordable Heart Healthy Foods

Today you will be doing double duty:  practice your searching and sorting skills while focusing on heart health.

Eating heart healthy on a budget is not easy.   In this word search puzzle, you are hunting for heart healthy foods that are all under $1 per serving.

You can hone your searching and sorting skills by using different searching strategies in this puzzle and see which works best for you.   Here are some suggestions:

• Start on the edges and work your way in.
• Pick a letter and search for all words that start with that letter.
• Quickly scan the whole puzzle and see if you can pick out whole words.

For more affordable, heart healthy foods check out American Heart Association’s list.  Take care of your heart and you protect your entire vascular system — including your brain!

 

Wednesday’s Word Game: Word Sequences

Fill in the Blanks to Solve These Puzzles

This week’s Word Game does not allow you to focus on just one brain process — you will have to think critically and problem solve using multiple processes all at once!

Check out the sample.

Now try one… move down all the letters NOT in a circle.   Use the clue on the right to help you figure out the answer.

How about one where the clues are bit more obscure?

 How did you do?

Did you enjoy this Week’s Wednesday’s Words Challenge? You might also be interested in our weekly Crunch Time e-mails.  Once per week we send out an e-mail with a few photo puzzles from one of our games.  Sign-up for Crunch Time here!

Brain Training Puzzle

Weekly Brain Challenge

Today’s brain challenge is a set of Level 2 Find the Difference puzzles.  There are three puzzles below, each with five differences.  Each puzzle has five specific types of differences:  a color change, a size change, something that changed direction, something that was duplicated, and something that was added into the picture or removed.  Is there one specific type of change that is more difficult for you to spot?  Share your results with us in the Comment section!

Click on the images to make them larger on your screen.

Festive Christmas pins at an art store in Fernandina Beach, Florida.

A ladybug magnet on the refrigerator.

A shop at Seaport Village in San Diego, California.

Thanks for playing this week’s brain challenge.  To see our past Weekly Brain Challenge posts, check out the Game of the Week Archive page.  You can also sign up for our weekly Crunch Time e-mails to receive puzzles directly to your inbox.