Under the buttons in every FLOW game is a short line that begins with the word “Uses” and names two kinds of thinking. This page explains what those names mean.
A cognitive use is a kind of thinking that a puzzle requires in order to be solved. The term describes the puzzle, not the person playing it. For each game, we name the two kinds of thinking that the puzzle relies on most.
thruWord: word retrieval and working memory
In thruWord, you are given a word at each end of a chain, with empty spaces between them. Each word you add must join with the word before it and the word after it, so that each pair makes a familiar compound word or phrase.
- Word retrieval is the ability to bring up a word you know at the moment you need it. Most of the answers in thruWord are everyday words, so the challenge is not knowing them but calling them to mind.
- Working memory is the ability to hold several pieces of information in mind while you work with them. In thruWord, you have to keep both ends of the chain in mind at once. For example, if an empty space sits between ABOVE and BREAKING, the missing word must work with both. GROUND does, because it gives you “aboveground” and “groundbreaking.” A word that fits only one side is a near miss, and part of the puzzle is recognizing when to let it go.
Hive: verbal fluency and cognitive flexibility
Hive gives you seven letter tiles, and every word you make must use the letter in the center. The goal is to find as many words as you can and to fill a set of rows, each of which asks for words of a certain length.
- Verbal fluency is the ability to produce words that follow a rule, one after another. Hive asks you to come up with words yourself rather than recognize words that are shown to you.
- Cognitive flexibility is the ability to change your approach when the current one stops working. The approach that fills the row of three-letter words will not fill the row of seven-letter words, so at some point you have to set aside a method that has been working and try a different one.
Word²: visuospatial processing and planning
Word² gives you a grid of letters in which every letter belongs to exactly one word, and every word fits the day’s theme.
- Visuospatial processing is the ability to see and make sense of patterns in space. In Word², you have to spot words in the grid before you trace them, and your eyes do much of the searching.
- Planning is the ability to think several steps ahead. Each word you trace uses up its letters, so the order in which you take the words matters. The last word on the board can be found only if the words before it have left its letters free.
WordAGE: deductive reasoning and semantic memory
WordAGE gives you a set of words, usually five, to arrange in the order in which they first appeared in English. When you check your answer, each word that sits beside its correct date turns green.
- Deductive reasoning is the ability to reach a conclusion from facts you have already established. Once a word turns green, its place is settled, and that tells you where the remaining words cannot go.
- Semantic memory is your store of general knowledge, including what you know about words and where they come from. Each card ends with the history of its words, and challenge #2 asks you questions about them.
OneOff: inductive reasoning and selective attention
OneOff gives you four words. When you change one letter in each of them, the four new words have something in common.
- Inductive reasoning is the ability to work out a general rule from a few examples. Once you have solved two of the words, what they have in common begins to show, and that rule points you toward the other two.
- Selective attention is the ability to focus on what matters while ignoring what distracts you. The four starting words often seem to belong together already, and that first impression is usually a trap. Solving the puzzle means setting it aside.
What we are not claiming
We do not claim that these games make you sharper, improve your memory, or protect you from anything. Playing a puzzle every day makes you better at that particular puzzle, but whether the effect reaches any further is not settled, and we will not claim that it does. What we can tell you is what each puzzle asks of you, and that is what the “Uses” line describes.
One game goes a step further. WordAGE teaches you where English words come from, and challenge #2 asks you about what you have just learned.
Taken together, the five games call on five different kinds of thinking: finding a word, making words, seeing words, reasoning about words, and reshaping them.