Brain Benefits of Brain Teasers and Logic Puzzles
Have you ever stopped to consider that brain teasers are more than just a break from “real learning” in the classroom? There are many studied brain benefits of brain teasers and logic puzzles. Research shows time and time again that brain teasers and logic puzzles activate and improve the abilities of the frontal lobe of the brain. Our frontal lobe is in charge of many of our daily functions including our attention, personality formation, impulse control, and memory – to name a few. Below are a few ways brain teasers and logic puzzles improve our brain function and ability to engage in academic and real-life activities.
1. Improves Attention Span
Many puzzles require the thinker to pay attention to the small details. If you’re like me, a particularly complexing puzzle may be taking up attention bandwidth in your brain long after it should. As learners grow and increase in cognitive ability, the length of arriving at the puzzle’s solution often increases.
A classic example of puzzles requiring a longer attention span includes any of the scenarios where you are asked to imagine yourself coming to a river with any variety of animals that can or can’t get along with each other in the boat or on the shore. (My children said I should have substituted siblings instead of animals. Whatever works, I guess.) Our favorite TedEd example of this puzzle can be found here.
2. Expands Executive Function and Impulse Control
Closely tied to attention span, the frontal lobe controls executive function. Executive function is the ability to think before acting as well as considering the consequences of one’s actions. It is closely tied to the brain’s ability to control impulsive actions. Because many brain teasers are solved in a logical or set order, the brain gets practice with stopping, thinking, considering if it is correct, and repeating tasks.
3. Elevates Mental Health and Reduces Anxiety
Solving difficult, yet fulfilling challenges gives the brain the feeling of gaining a reward once solved. While grabbing a book full of brain busters is not going to cure your mental health issues, it can be a nice, positive boost in the moment. While some of you may be thinking “brain teasers make me more anxious!”, consider the type of brain puzzle you enjoy and try those!
For me, I enjoy figuring out puzzles like this:
4. Upgrades Problem Solving Abilities
“Practice Makes Improvement” When your brain practices solving multi-step or challenging problems, it gets better at doing so! Once you have learned (or heard) the solution to a few problems, your brain begins to think differently. It can take the information it learned from the last set of problems and apply it to the new problem.
Thankfully – yay frontal lobe – improving this skill with brain teasers may transfer over to more applicable life skills requiring problem solving! (Unless it is solving the problem of finding lost socks – there seems to be no hope for that skill – at least at our house!)
5. Boosts Creativity
Many brain teasers, especially those centered around uniqueuses of language, require out-of-the box solutions. Thinkers must examine the creative ways to solve the problem at hand in ways that may not be a literal interpretation.
Try this one on your learners (but it must be read out-loud to work!!!!) “One knight, a man and woman were sailing on a boat in the sea. The boat could hold two people without sinking. However, the boat sank. Why? Answer – learners must extrapolate “one knight” – as in a third person – instead of the heard and expected “one night.”
6. Enhances Working Memory and Processing Speed
With repeat exposure to similar typed puzzles, the time needed to solve decreases and the memory is better able to recall facts and information. Consider the first time you tried a Sudoku. It probably took you awhile to solve your first (likely easy) puzzle. But after solving several, your completion speed increases and your brain is ready for a more challenging feat!
Fact fluency is a sought after skill in every classroom and can help reduce math anxiety. The use of engaging themed logic puzzles as a tool to improve working memory and math skills is an all around win. Many teachers who have used my puzzles have thanked me for finding a way to engage students in a different way of thinking about math and numbers. Certainly these students are improving their working memory as they complete these puzzles!!
Try Dinosaur Addition Sums to 20 or Multiplication Logic Puzzle Task Card Sampler for free!
A Note to Parents and Teachers:
The next time you find yourself with a few extra moments, consider introducing your young minds to different types of logic puzzles and brain teasers. The brain benefits of brain teasers and logic puzzles are research based and applicable to all aspects of life and learning – not just math! If you’re interested, you can find studies here, here, and here backing up how awesome brain teasers are for the brain. (But I think the above article is a little more fun to read. 🙂)
