If you’re a word game lover, you already know that word games come in all shapes and sizes. You know the fun they can be and the mental stimulation that comes alongside playing them. If word games don’t sound like your cup of tea, you might be surprised to learn that these games are much more than just a pastime. Word games are incredibly good for your mind and result in long-lasting boosts to your cognitive abilities.
The following will break down why you should be playing at least one of these games—Scrabble—on the regular and will include some tips to help you master the sometimes tricky rounds. With a little technique and practice, you can be an expert Scrabble player in no time.
Scrabble Changes The Way Your Brain Works
A University of Calgary experiment did a study on the effects of Scrabble playing on the brain. They used 24 people in the study, half of which did not play Scrabble before the study began. They were given jumbled letters and were told to identify as many English words as possible as quickly as possible. Their brains were monitored by fMRI scanners.
The study found that the twelve volunteers who regularly played Scrabble were better at the task, which should come as no surprise. What was surprising was that the study also discovered the Scrabble players used an entirely different part of the brain to complete the assignment. They used the working memory and visual perception parts of their brain instead of the regions most generally associated with retrieval in visual word recognition.
The study concluded that the brain was highly flexible. If someone were to make Scrabble a regular part of their lifestyle, they could open up new mental capabilities. The results are being applied to other research being conducted on neurodegenerative disorders like Alzheimer’s disease. People may be able to train their brains to use alternative regions, meaning damage or loss in one area doesn’t have to prevent a person from forever struggling with certain tasks.
Scrabble Improves Vocabulary But Also Strategy Skills
It should come as no surprise that playing Scrabble can boost your vocabulary. You’re always going to remember that one super obnoxious word a friend put down that won them the game. What many people don’t realize is that the layout of a Scrabble board also improves your ability to strategize.
Because of the double and triple letter score squares as well as the double and triple word score squares, many find winning the game involves a little planning ahead. Not only do you want to make it difficult for your opponents to access and use those squares easily, but you also want to set yourself up to use them optimally. Expert players tend to plan several words to help with this.
How To Be Good At It: Brush Up On Your Vocabulary
Diligent players of Scrabble will tell you it’s not just about knowing more words—and it isn’t. It’s also about knowing the right type of words. Because different letters produce different scores, learning words that use rarer letters can result in a massive advantage. Knowing words like the following can be the difference between a win and a loss:
- PHIZ (18 points)
- QUIFF (20 points)
- ZYMURGY (25 points)
- BEZIQUES (28)
- QUAT (12 points)
- MEZQUIT (27 points)
- QU (11 points)
- HIGHJACK (28 points)
It’s fairly easy to find lists of excellent Scrabble words online. Take note of a few of these words and watch your gameplay change.
Use An Unscrambling Tool
A big part of Scrabble is finding the words you’ve got in your seven letter spread. If you’ve never done this sort of thing before, it can be a little overwhelming. Taking a bit of time to watch an unscrambler program provide all the possible words out of a sequence of letters can train your mind to see these words hidden in the letters you were given. Spoiler alert: there are more words in a series of seven letters than you’d first think. There are over 200 words that can be made out of the letters: P, N, A, L, T, E, S—that’s a lot of options!
The above information should help you see why playing Scrabble is so great for your mind. And the tips included at the end should help you get off on the right foot when it comes to developing a knack for the game. Of course, everyone is different, and so everyone’s mind works a little bit differently. Take note of the letters you struggle to make decent words with when playing and do a little research on the possibilities they can have.