The Effects of Experience and Disuse on Crossword Solving

Abstract

At the annual American Crossword Puzzle Tournament, participants filled out a questionnaire about their experience with crossword solving and related activities for every year since they began solving crossword puzzles. This study focused on the role of crossword‐solving disruptions in influencing objective performance at the tournament. The number of breaks (a period of at least a year without crossword solving) predicted decreases in current performance, and the more time since the last break predicted increased performance. The effects of different types of experience on crossword performance are discussed with respect to their influence on performance, such as regular leisure engagement in crossword solving and more focused efforts to improve particular aspects of performance. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

The Grounded Expertise Components Approach in the Novel Area of Cryptic Crossword Solving

“…Study of the skill acquisition phase and of the role of practice in this domain is therefore refreshingly free from potential confounds such as early childhood practice routines, intense parental pressure or extrinsically rewarded competition circuits. Our subsequent research pursued this line, looking at various aspects of cryptic crossword experience, including the degree of difficulty and the range of crosswords tackled, and the definition and extent—if any—of deliberate practice (Ericsson et al, 1993 ; Hambrick et al, 2014b ; Moxley et al, 2015 ) in this domain.…”

“…Given the large disparity in cognitive demands and processes between the two forms of crossword (American definitional and British-style cryptic), it is essential to discriminate clearly between research undertaken in each field, since the findings from one area may not be applicable to the other, and cannot be cited uncritically as if the domains were congruent or interchangeable (Almond, 2010 ). Research into American-style crosswords has recently become more prolific (Nickerson, 1977 , 2011 ; Hambrick et al, 1999 ; Toma et al, 2014 ; Moxley et al, 2015 ), while research into British-style cryptic crosswords has been comparatively sparse: this is mainly, one suspects, because of the separate crossword traditions of Britain and America, effectively making the subject unknown in America.…”

“…H6: cryptic solving would not normally begin in childhood, in view of the cognitive complexity of the task, but is more likely to commence in late teenage years (for US crosswords, see also Moxley et al, 2015 ).…”

Effects of 30 Years of Disuse on Exceptional Memory Performance

“…However, there have been very few studies that examined the effects of disuse on skilled performance that have been acquired over hundreds of hours of engagement (Moxley, Ericsson, Scheiner, & Tuffiash, ). Many types of everyday memories are frequently retrieved and reactivated by subsequent experience.…”

“…In these cases, it is very difficult, if not impossible, to describe the structure of the skill at the original acquisition and to monitor its subsequent use and reactivation. These methodological challenges were proposed to account for the scarcity of studies on the effects of long periods of disuse on complex skills (for a review, see Moxley et al., ).…”