Study spells benefit for Scrabble players
Posted Aug 17, 2011 12:32 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
New research shows Scrabble has a lot more benefits than just being an enjoyable pastime.
A new study by the University of Calgary shows that it is possible to develop visual word recognition ability in adulthood, something that goes beyond what researchers previously thought was achievable.
According to Ian Hargreaves, a PhD candidate in psychology, while most people require meaning to decide if a word is real, Scrabble players have it easier.
“What we’ve seen is that by studying lists of words, by practicing Scrabble play, competitive Scrabble players have been able to modify this skill, so that when they just need to decide if something is a real English word or not, they’re able to do so just based on the shape of what they’re looking at.”
The study also found competitive players processed words faster and had a much easier time recognizing words spelled vertically.
