Brain Workout

Challenging puzzles to sharpen your mind, improve your memory, and keep your brain fit.

by Marcel Danesi, Ph.D.

Word Ladders Meet Anagrams

In a previous post, I dealt with word ladders, the puzzle genre invented by Lewis Carroll. As you might recall, you are given two words, with steps in between, as in a ladder. Read More

Puzzle-Solving and the Power of Generalization

One of the most interesting features of the human brain is its ability to extract general principles from specific cases. Read More

Word Squares

One of the oldest puzzle genres of history is what we now call the word square or acrostic, a square grid of seemingly random letters which, however, actually conceals words or messages. Read More

Cryptograms and the Allure of Secret Codes

We seem to have an instinctive fascination for mysteries and, especially, for mysteries that revolve around secret codes. This penchant brought about a publishing sensation in 2003-Dan Brown's novel The Da Vinci Code. In my view, the book became a runaway bestseller in large part because it played ingeniously on this fascination. Read More

Alcuin’s River Crossing Puzzles and Common Sense

As a puzzlist, I often emphasize that many puzzles are solved simply by using common sense or what the American pragmatist philosopher Charles S, Peirce (1839-1914) called "practical logic." When we understand how to do certain things practically, without having to be told or shown how to do them, we are employing this form of logic. Read More

Puzzles and Brain Fitness: A Personal View

The intent of this blog is (and has always been) to correlate brain fitness with puzzles. I was asked recently, if doing puzzles helps stave off Alzheimer's and other forms of mental deterioration. I would like to share the thoughts I passed on to this particular reader with all readers of this blog. Read More

Where is the Missing Dollar?

I have often been asked what makes a puzzle interesting. Is it difficulty level or complexity? I don't think so, although difficulty and complexity do make a puzzle more challenging. The classic puzzles are actually rather uncomplicated in design. Read More

The Doublet Puzzle: A Masterpiece from the Pen of Lewis Carroll

Most people probably know Lewis Carroll, the nom de plume of Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, as the author of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There. Read More

The Appeal of Sudoku

In the winter of 2005, I was in my office early in the morning preparing my classes ahead of me when I got an unexpected call from a reporter at the Associated Press who, having read my book The Puzzle Instinct, wanted to gauge my opinion on a new puzzle craze that was spreading throughout the world-Sudoku. I had to humbly admit that I had never heard of Sudoku. Read More

Puzzles and the Brain

I recently googled relevant psychology, neuroscience, aging, and education websites to get a sense of the kind of research being conducted on the relation between puzzles, and general brain functioning. I found an astronomical number of sites. I then looked up sources that I considered to be scientifically reliable ones. Read More

Can you solve these visual thinking puzzles?

Visual thinking is the term used commonly in psychology to refer to the type of thinking that results from perceiving or processing visual stimuli, forms, or patterns. Such thinking is a major function of the right hemisphere of the brain, also known (logically enough) as the "visual hemisphere." Read More

Fun with Anagrams

Anagrams are words or phrases made by rearranging the letters of other words or phrases. Their origin goes right back to the dawn of recorded history. Initially, they were perceived as harboring secret or prophetic messages. Eerily, anagrams can be constructed that seem to shed light on a person's character. Read More

The Original "Thinking Outside the Box" Puzzle!

Let me first introduce myself and this blog, which is titled Total Brain Workout. I am a professor of anthropology at the University of Toronto, and one of my main areas of cultural research is puzzles. I have also been teaching an undergraduate course on puzzles (their history and cultural meaning) at the University for many years. Read More

Marcel Danesi, Ph.D., is a professor of semiotics and anthropology at Victoria College, University of Toronto. His books include The Puzzle Instinct and The Total Brain Workout.

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