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Super Scrabble Players Have Unusual Brains

Posted by samzenpus on from the Timothy-explained dept.

An anonymous reader writes "Being a competitive Scrabble player apparently warps your brain, in a good way, according to researchers at the University of Calgary in Canada. At the high level of the game, players quickly judge whether words, or possible words are real based in large part on their visual stimuli — not an inherent knowledge of the word or its meaning. 'These findings indicate that Scrabble players are less reliant on the meaning of words to judge whether or not they are real, and more flexible at word recognition using orthographic information. ... Competitive Scrabble players are visual word recognition experts and their skill pushes the bounds of what we previously considered the end-point of development of the word recognition system.'"

18 of 142 comments (clear)

  1. Cause and Effect? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Does being a competitive Scrabble player warp your brain, or are those with warped brains more likely to become competitive Scrabble players?

    1. Re:Cause and Effect? by fuzzyfuzzyfungus · · Score: 2

      There certainly might be some weeding on the basis of subtler inherent capabilities lower down in the ranks; but the sheer amount of drill and practice(both playing and hammering at word lists) required to make a good scrabble player suggests a major 'effect' component.

      I do find the notion that this is a 'good' development(outside of the environment of scrabble, where it is obviously useful) sort of interesting. When I am reading, the most pleasant, fastest, and most engaged state is when the words become 'transparent' to me. I'm no longer consciously aware of visually scanning the individual words, nor is their any vocal component(audible or subvocalising), the meaning of what I'm reading just sort of flows in, without any consciousness of the intermediate tasks that I have to perform to get it there. The state of immediate visual recognition of real/false, divorced from meaning, sounds like it would be rather distracting while trying to do anything with words that isn't a particular rather abstract word game...

      It's like the Stroop effect tests: some people are better than others at them; but the illiterate knock them out of the park without effort, while the more proficient readers often have great difficulty completing the task instead of just responding to the meaning of the word. Obviously, you aren't likely to become a top tier scrabble player through illiteracy or other serious reading disorder; but I have to wonder if developing this specialized visual facility to such a high pitch detracts from one's general-purpose reading ease.

    2. Re:Cause and Effect? by RackinFrackin · · Score: 2

      One adapts to their environment, and playing Scrabble requires you to see words differently than most.

      Indeed. The development of this ability in hardcore Scrabble players is similar to the Tetris effect.

  2. Definitely Effect. by hamster_nz · · Score: 2

    Having read "Word Freaks - : Heartbreak, Triumph, Genius, and Obsession in the World of Competitive Scrabble Players" you can see how the author starts with a writer's perspective on words, and through his attempts to become a competitive player he alters his brain. Towards the end of the book he is seeing anagrams everywhere and words become separated from their meanings...

    "Jaxqiz" (n): An unlikely word that is only useful for playing scrabble with.

    1. Re:Definitely Effect. by Dyinobal · · Score: 2

      It's similar how a musician listens to music is completely different from someone who doesn't play any sort of instrument. I read an interesting article about it and a few of my friends complain that they can't just listen to new music their brain always has to analyze it.

    2. Re:Definitely Effect. by Stradenko · · Score: 2, Informative

      Speaking as a seasoned Scrabble player, I think you mean "definately."

    3. Re:Definitely Effect. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Speaking as a seasoned Scrabble player, I think you mean "definately."

      You must not be very good at scrabble.

    4. Re:Definitely Effect. by phantomfive · · Score: 2

      Every music style has something. It's hard to top the charts without having something at least. Listen to how Kanye alternates themes as well as any Clementi sonatina. Listen to the power in the performance by Rihanna - the sheer, raw emotion of it can be as overwhelming as the emotion of Beethoven's fifth, second movement. Even with auto-tune.....come on, the skill of being able to sing in tune is not the most important skill in entertaining.

      Sure, a lot of all music is derivative, and most of it won't survive into the next century. But that is true of every century, the gems are rare. It's there if you know how to listen.

      --
      "First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
  3. Re:This isn't amazing by drobety · · Score: 3, Funny

    I've always wondered if cynical people have an unusual brain.

  4. What nonsense. by ElectricTurtle · · Score: 2, Interesting

    How is recognizing a valid word without knowing anything about it useful, outside of Scrabble and similar contrivances? I watched Word Wars some years ago about competition Scrabble players, and let me tell you, these are not smart people. They are people who have dumped all of their lives and meager talents into memorizing all the "valid" seven character patterns in English. They don't know meanings, they are not particularly literate, they just know what pattern of characters is valid and what pattern isn't. I don't think this is particularly praiseworthy, and to try to look at it physiologically as a special positive aspect seems to me to be in denial of who these people really are what limited abilities they truly have.

    --
    I support the Slashcott and will not be reading or commenting from 2/10/14 to 2/17/14. Beta is steaming pile of dog shit
    1. Re:What nonsense. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

      How is recognizing a valid word without knowing anything about it useful, outside of Scrabble and similar contrivances? I watched Word Wars some years ago about competition Scrabble players, and let me tell you, these are not smart people. They are people who have dumped all of their lives and meager talents into memorizing all the "valid" seven character patterns in English. They don't know meanings, they are not particularly literate, they just know what pattern of characters is valid and what pattern isn't. I don't think this is particularly praiseworthy, and to try to look at it physiologically as a special positive aspect seems to me to be in denial of who these people really are what limited abilities they truly have.

      Being a phenomenal scrabble player is notable in exactly the same way as being a phenomenal sprinter is notable. Good sprinters have also dumped all of their lives into figuring out how to run the fastest under very constrained conditions. Their ability doesn't help them outside of it. By your argument, we should ignore almost all record setters, as the elite in a field are often those who disregard all else.

      Instead, we are amazed by sprinters going faster today then medical science previously thought possible. I am amazed by Scrabble players specializing their brains beyond what was thought possible. Whether the act of such dedication to anything is healthy is debatable, but the results are amazing.

    2. Re:What nonsense. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Informative

      I'm a graphic designer, it comes in very handy. At work I catch a lot of mistakes that would have otherwise gone to print. Sometimes while quickly glancing at a page, incorrect words will just stick out to me, even without directly reading them. Sometimes we get medical terms or other words I'm not familiar with and the computer spellchecker doesn't have either, and I usually have a good hunch one way or the other.

  5. Causation? by GlenMac · · Score: 2

    Is being a competitive scrabble player causing the brain to warp? Or is having this 'warped' brain a general advantage to becoming a competitive scrabble player?

  6. A new respect for players by codesherpa · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I recently wrote an application to find the best location to play a word for scrabble thinking it would be an easy task, boy was I wrong. Sure, finding the highest scoring word for the letters on your rack was straightforward, tricky, but straightforward (the key is to think of the board and your letters as an organization of tiles rather than words). But then I wanted it to compete with an existing application like Quackle and I started to realize how difficult it would be.

    Pro's are constantly analyzing the board and thinking about their opponent's next turn as well as their own next turn. On every possible turn they think about stuff like not leaving words that can be hooked with an 's', not leaving a rack with duplicate letters or a rack with too many vowels or consonants, not leaving words open to be played next to premium locations, when to play or keep Q's and blanks, how to be the first one out, and a bunch of even more complicated stuff. Oh, and don't forget that they still have to find all the words that can be made from their letters and the open locations on the board. Memorizing the better part of 180,000 words seems like the easy part.

    The fact that pro's can do all of that in their head is pretty amazing. I have no problem saying that the top scrabble players are equal in their ability to chess grandmasters.

  7. Another reported trait by 93+Escort+Wagon · · Score: 3, Funny

    Apparently being a super Scrabble player renders a person unable to reproduce.

    Or was it "unlikely"?

    --
    #DeleteChrome
  8. Taking away from other brain capacities? by ciaran_o_riordan · · Score: 2

    We've all heard of the research showing that London taxi drivers have one part of their brain enlarged by their work.

    More recently, research shows that this comes at the cost of reducing their memory for other things:
    http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/sciencetoday/2011/0609/1224298636027.html

    Becoming a super-specialist in a very narrow field, such as a Scrabble master, might have the same effect.

    --
    Expert in software patents or patent law? Contribute to the ESP wiki!
  9. Tips for becoming a decent scrabble player. by idbeholda · · Score: 2

    1) Memorize every 2, 3 and 4 letter word, especially those that use x, q and z.
    2) Memorize all prefixes and suffixes.
    3) Onomatopoeias are acceptable. (brr, brrr, kapow, whoosh, ooh, aah, etc) Basically most any "word" you will find used to verbally illustrate physical action in a comic book.
    4) Familiarize yourself with words that contain a high number of vowels and consonants along with those that contain either no vowels or consonants. (aalii, cwrths, etc.)

    The above basic tips will come in handy, and can usually net at least 3-4 bingos per game, if not more. However, the above tips can be used for virtually any word game. The next list is a more indepth metaguide to controlling the outcome of a scrabble/literati based game.

    In scrabble, count tiles. Same principle as counting cards. In other variants, this may not be possible if the letter pool is randomized. If the tile pool is fixed and you count the stack, it's not cheating, it's called using statistical probability to your advantage.

    Any chance you get, clog the board by playing a word that creates more words in 2 directions or more. For instance, in scrabble, using the X (8) points on a triple letter score (played in both directions) will net a minimum base score of 52 points. An example of this would be a combination of AX, XU, AT. Naturally, Z's and Q's net a minimum of 64 points. It's basically a free bingo to abuse at whim.

    Depending on the complexity of the variant at hand, try to maintain a minimum average of at least 20-35 points per play. This is hands-down, THE quickest way to build up a decent score, so don't rely on bingos to pull you through the finish line. They're just icing on the cake.

    Do not bother memorizing definitions of a particular word, but rather the fact that it is a word. If someone is hounding for a definition of an obscure or unusual word, tell them to consult a dictionary; That's why we have them. Any word game should have the use of a dictionary included by default, whether manual or automatic. Memorizing each individual definition is pointless, as it merely takes up otherwise valuable brainspace. Would you waste time memorizing each page of in a metropolitan phone book on the basis that someone could possibly ask you to recite the content of extraneous information? I didn't think so.

    If your letters suck, don't be afraid to throw some (or all) of them back. Just keep in mind to remember your chances of drawing the same (or different) letters. This method will sometimes make the difference between a 10-15 point play or a bingo.

    Whenever you get the chance, try to either hit two word scores simultaneously (8 letters), or have a word score tile go both ways (single letter prefix or suffix).

    Build up a cutthroat, bloodthirsty strategy by playing competitively against yourself. This method of training is good as it also allows you to freely think from a completely objective standpoint, and will help you to build up a decent wordlist memorization by working at your own pace. If you play competitively against yourself, you should easily be able to hit a final score of 800.

    If the variant is scrabble, and the score is above 500-600 (depending on your own personal preference) write it down on the scrabble lid as a badge of honor.

  10. The real question... by Rui+del-Negro · · Score: 2

    The real question is: is your in-law aware of their resemblance to the the gardener, the mailman and the poolboy?