Predictors Of Crossword Puzzle Proficiency And Moderators .

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Journal of Experimental Psychology: General1999, Vol. 128, No. 2, 131-164Copyright 1999 by the American Psychological Association, Inc.0096-3445/99/S3.00Predictors of Crossword Puzzle Proficiency and Moderatorsof Age-Cognition RelationsDavid Z. Hambrick, Timothy A. Salthouse, and Elizabeth J. MeinzGeorgia Institute of TechnologyFour studies, each with approximately 200 adults between the ages of 18 and 80, wereconducted to address two major goals. The first goal was to examine the relative contributionsof different factors to the successful solution of crossword puzzles. Correlations and structuralequation analyses revealed that general knowledge is the strongest predictor of crosswordpuzzle proficiency. Surprisingly, abstract reasoning ability, as measured by several differenttests, had no direct relation to puzzle proficiency. The second goal of the project was toexamine moderators of the relations between age and measures of both fluid and crystallizedcognition. The results provide no evidence to suggest that amount of crossword puzzleexperience reduces age-related decreases in fluid cognition or enhances age-related increasesin crystallized cognition.The studies described in this article were designed toaddress two major goals. The first goal was to identifyindividual-difference characteristics that contribute to thesuccessful solution of crossword puzzles. Intuition suggeststhat crossword puzzle solving is similar to many real-worldendeavors in that knowledge may be a critical component ofsuccessful performance. In addition, anecdotal reports bycrossword puzzlers suggest that reasoning abilities contribute to success in crossword puzzle solving because crossword puzzles sometimes include ambiguous and misleadingclues. Thus, success in crossword puzzle solving seems to beinfluenced both by knowledge—a "crystallized" aspect ofcognition—and by reasoning abilities—a "fluid" aspect ofcognition (see Horn & Hofer, 1992, for a review of thedistinction between fluid cognition and crystallized cognition). Because many everyday activities are likely to requireboth fluid and crystallized cognitive abilities, identifyingindividual-difference characteristics related to success incrossword puzzle solving may contribute to the theoreticalunderstanding of proficiency in complex cognitive domains.In particular, to the extent that solving crossword puzzlesresembles certain kinds of work activities, research on thefactors associated with proficiency in puzzle solving mayhelp explain why there are surprisingly few age-relateddifferences in measures of work performance despite agerelated declines in relevant cognitive abilities (Salthouse &Maurer, 1996).The successful solution of crossword puzzles seems torequire a considerable amount of knowledge, both of wordsand of general information. For example, whether a puzzlesolver can produce the answer to the clue "Ansazi dwellings" (caves) will obviously depend to a large extent onwhether he or she possesses knowledge relevant to that clue.In addition, however, reasoning ability may be required tounderstand the meanings of certain clues in crosswordpuzzles, particularly those that are misleading and ambiguous. An example of such a clue is "iron clothes," becausemaking the assumption that iron is a verb leads the puzzlesolver away from the correct answer of "armor." Inaddition, reasoning ability may be required to work withinthe simultaneous multiple constraints imposed by the puzzle's interlocking grid (i.e., each answer in a crosswordpuzzle must contain both a certain number of letters and thecorrect letters of intersecting answers). Finally, strategiesrelated to memory access may also be involved in thesolution of crossword puzzles. Consistent with this view,Nickerson (1977) pointed out that crossword puzzles can beviewed as cued retrieval tasks.Nickerson's (1977) discussion, and our introspectiveanalysis, suggests that at least three types of solutionprocesses occur while one is attempting to solve crosswordpuzzles. First, some solutions seem to occur immediately,from merely reading the clue, and often lead to identificationof the target without even considering constraints such as thenumber of letters in the target word. A second type ofsolution involves some deliberation and consideration ofconstraints imposed by the clue, by the length of the word,and by any letters that have already been identified. The thirdtype of solution process consists of extensive deliberation,either in attempting to interpret the meaning of the clue,trying to identify the relevance of the theme to the item, or insearching one's storehouse of knowledge relevant to thetarget. This last process, which does not always result insuccess, often involves re-examination of earlier responsesand possibly a variety of conscious search and reasoningprocesses.David Z. Hambrick, Timothy A. Salthouse, and Elizabeth J.Meinz, School of Psychology, Georgia Institute of Technology.This research was supported by National Institute on AgingGrant R37 AG06826. We gratefully acknowledge the assistance ofKellie Hocking, Stefanie Sherwood, Michelle Wolbrette, and CarlValentino for assistance in scoring the data. We also thank JackMarr, Neil Charness, and John Nesselroade for valuable commentson an earlier version of this article.Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed toDavid Z. Hambrick, School of Psychology, Georgia Institute ofTechnology, Atlanta, Georgia 30332.131

132HAMBRICK, SALTHOUSE, AND MEINZThis speculative account of the steps involved in solvingcrossword puzzles is also consistent with the reports of anumber of participants in the current project.1 That is, whenasked to describe the steps they follow when working oncrossword puzzles most said that they answer the easy itemsfirst and then return to work on items with letters fromintersecting words. Some respondents reported that if thepuzzle has a theme, they consider whether it is helpful insolving some of the clues, and 90% said that they usereasoning, particularly to identify targets with letters fromintersecting words. Finally, 60% of the respondents said thatthey consult a dictionary or other reference source (e.g.,encyclopedia, another person) when they are unable to solvea particular item in a puzzle.The preceding analysis suggests that failures to solveitems in a crossword puzzle could originate because of lackof knowledge necessary for target identification; inefficientstrategies for retrieving information from memory; ineffective manipulation or transformation of information; or weakreasoning abilities needed to interpret clues, consider themultiple simultaneous constraints imposed by the puzzle'sinterlocking grid system, or both. In fact, Underwood,Diehim, and Batt (1994) recently reported that scores onvocabulary (assessing knowledge), anagram (assessing wordmanipulation), and word generation (assessing memoryretrieval) tests were all correlated with crossword puzzlesuccess. A major goal of the current studies was to examinethe relative contributions of each of the factors listed aboveto crossword puzzle proficiency.The second goal motivating the studies in this project wasto examine moderators of the relations between age andmeasures of both fluid and crystallized aspects of cognitivefunctioning. Fluid cognition refers to aspects of cognitionthat are at least somewhat independent of knowledge, and itis typically measured with tests of abstract reasoning ability,spatial visualization ability, and certain types of memory. Incontrast, crystallized cognition, which refers to one's accumulated knowledge, is often measured with tests of culturalinformation and vocabulary. A consistent finding in researchon aging and cognition is that fluid and crystallized aspectsof cognition follow different developmental trajectories incross-sectional samples: Age-related decreases in fluid cognition begin in young adulthood, whereas crystallized cognition often remains stable or even increases into late adulthood (for reviews, see Horn & Hofer, 1992, and Salthouse,1991).According to one appealing view of cognitive aging,age-related decreases in fluid cognition are attributable tolack of recent use of cognitive abilities, or "disuse." Thisview—captured by the popular saying "use it or loseit"—was articulated in a recent Newsweek article in thefollowing manner: "An idle brain will deteriorate just assurely as an unused leg. And just as exercise can preventmuscle atrophy, mental challenges seem to preserve both themind and the immune system" (Cowley, 1997, p. 67). Thedisuse perspective has also been invoked in the scientificliterature as an explanation of age-related decline in fluidcognition. For example, Sorenson (1933) claimed that "Adecrease in test ability among adults is probably caused bythe fact that adults, as they grow older, exercise their mindsless and less with the materials found in psychological tests"(p. 736). More recently, in reporting a study of collegeprofessors, Shimamura, Berry, Mangels, Rusting, and Jurica(1995) suggested that "mental activity may protect cognitive functions from typical age-related changes" (p. 276).The disuse perspective is also related to efforts designed toremediate cognitive deficits through training. For example,Schaie and Willis (1996) recently speculated, on the basis oftheir research on cognitive training, that "much of thecognitive decline observed in the elderly may be due todisuse and is at least in part reversible" (p. 315).It should be noted, however, that empirical evidencerelevant to the disuse view of aging and cognition is mixed(for reviews, see Bosman & Charness, 1996, and Salthouse,1991). For example, Shimamura et al. (1995) recentlyreported that a sample of university professors had smallerage-related decreases in performance on working memoryand prose recall tasks—indexes of fluid cognition—thanadults from the general population. To the extent thatuniversity professors are more intellectually active thanadults from the general population, this finding suggests thatage-related decreases in cognitive functioning may bepartially attributable to disuse. Unfortunately, Shimamura etal.'s results are inconsistent with those from several earlierstudies. As examples, Sward (1945) found pronouncedage-related decreases in several measures of fluid cognitionin comparisons of young and old college professors, andChristensen and Henderson (1991) reported that academicsexhibited the same pattern of age-related cognitive differences as blue collar workers. In addition, Powell (1994)found very similar patterns of age-related cognitive differences in a large sample of physicians and in a more typicalsample of nonphysician adults.In the domain of music, Krampe and Ericsson (1996)recently reported in one of two studies that expert pianistsshowed smaller age-related differences in performance on amusic-related task that required bimanual reproduction ofshort sequences of musical notes than did amateur pianists.The pianists also played a relatively simple piece of musicand were rated by judges on several dimensions of musicalinterpretation skill (e.g., selection of appropriate tempo,evenness of touch, synchronization of hands, etc.). Unfortunately, Krampe and Ericsson were unable to reach aconclusion about whether age-related differences in musicalinterpretation were smaller among the experts than amongthe amateurs because of lack of agreement among thejudge's ratings. They did report, however, that the Age XExperience interaction was not statistically significant ineither of two studies on another measure of musical interpre1Twenty participants from Study 4 were contacted by phoneapproximately 6 months after their participation and asked questions about the steps involved in solving crossword puzzles,whether reasoning was involved, and what they did when they wereunable to find the solution to the clue. The 20 respondents ranged inage from 26 to 77 years (mean age 48.6), and their estimates ofthe number of puzzles attempted per week ranged from 1 to 15(M 6.2).

CROSSWORD PUZZLEStation based on keystroke force variation. Furthermore, in arecent test of recall of visually presented melodies, Meinzand Salthouse (1998a) found similar patterns of age-relateddifferences for experienced musicians and for adults withlittle or no musical experience. Finally, Salthouse, Babcock,Skovronek, Mitchell, and Palmon (1990) found that agerelated decreases on measures of spatial visualization taskswere no less severe for a sample of architects, who reportedusing spatial visualization abilities on an everyday basis,than for a sample of nonarchitects, who presumably hadmuch less experience using these abilities.At least two studies have examined the effects of intellectually demanding activities such as playing bridge or solvingcrossword puzzles on the relations between age and measures of cognitive performance. Clarkson-Smith and Hartley(1990) reported that older bridge players had higher scoreson tests of reasoning and working memory than agematched adults who did not play bridge. However, theseresearchers did not indicate whether the Age X Activityinteraction was statistically significant, and thus it is notclear whether the activity of playing bridge moderated theage-cognition relations. In a separate analysis, ClarksonSmith and Hartley did not find any significant differencesbetween crossword puzzlers and nonpuzzlers in the available measures of cognitive performance. Finally, a significant interaction of age and crossword puzzle experience onanagram solution, in the direction of no age-related differences among those with the most crossword experience, wasfound in one of two studies reported by Witte and Freund(1995).This brief review of the literature reveals that it is not yetclear on the basis of the available evidence whether sustained intellectual activity throughout adulthood reduces themagnitude of age-related decreases in measures of fluidcognition. Moreover, similar analyses have apparently notbeen conducted to determine whether amount of mentalactivity moderates the relations between age and measuresof crystallized cognition.In the current project we investigated the question ofwhether continued intellectual activity, in the form ofattempting to solve crossword puzzles, reduces the magnitude of the negative relations between age and measures offluid cognition, or enhances the magnitude of the positiverelations between age and measures of crystallized cognition. If attempting to solve crossword puzzles is a form ofmental exercise, and if exercise prevents atrophy in cognitive abilities as it does in physical abilities, then one mightpredict smaller age-related decreases in fluid cognition, andgreater age-related increases in crystallized cognition, forpeople with extensive crossword experience.There are at least two quite different perspectives on theeffects of experience on cognitive abilities. Research withinthe expertise tradition has emphasized the specificity ofexperiential effects because of findings indicating thatexpertise is highly specific and that the advantages associated with expertise are limited to domains in which one hasdirect experience. However, as alluded to earlier, the disuseidea within the area of cognitive aging, and virtually allresearch in the area of cognitive training, implies that mental133activity can have broad or general effects. In terms of theanalogy with physical exercise, experience with mentallydemanding activities might therefore have both specificeffects, perhaps corresponding to the development of particular muscle groups, and general or systemic effects, possiblycorresponding to improved cardiovascular or pulmonaryfunctioning. The exact effects of attempting to solve crossword puzzles on cognitive functioning are difficult to specifya priori, but several possibilities can be imagined for howthis type of activity might influence both fluid and crystallized cognition. For example, working crossword puzzlescould enhance reasoning abilities because of frequent practice attempting to interpret ambiguous or misleading cluesand through searching for solutions that simultaneouslysatisfy multiple constraints (such as the meaning of the clue,the number of letters in the target word, and the identity ofintersecting letters). In addition, crossword puzzle experience may have indirect influences on reasoning abilitiesbecause solving puzzles in everyday environments (e.g., ona train, in a noisy office, or while listening to a radio ortelevision) may enhance one's ability to concentrate and toinhibit distracting information. Crossword puzzle activitycould also have effects on knowledge and other aspects ofcrystallized cognition by frequent practice at retrievingdifferent types of information from memory and by thestimulation of new knowledge acquisition when the individual is confronted by items for which he or she does notalready know the answer. Another way that crosswordpuzzle solving may facilitate knowledge acquisition isthrough familiarity with external reference sources, including encyclopedias, dictionaries, or the Internet; that is, aperson who uses an external reference source when confronted with an unfamiliar crossword puzzle item may bemore likely to use that reference source to seek answers toother types of questions. Finally, knowledge acquired throughcrossword puzzle solving may make it easier to acquire newknowledge. This idea is consistent with the speculation ofCharness and Bieman-Copland (1992) that there may be "a'snowball' effect in knowledge acquisition, where the moreyou know, the easier it is to add new knowledge" (p. 322). Inshort, experience with activities such as crossword puzzlesolving may provide one explanation for why measures ofcrystallized cognition remain stable or increase with age.Crossword puzzle experience was assessed in thesestudies with five questions designed to reflect differentaspects of experience. Four questions asked about currentexperience in terms of number of puzzles or hours per weekspent on puzzles over the last 6 months. One question askedabout the number of crossword puzzles from sources otherthan The New York Times that were attempted per week, anda second question asked about the number of New YorkTimes puzzles attempted per week. Because puzzles in TheNew York Times are often considered particularly challenging, the two questions may tap different types of experience.The third question asked about the number of hours devotedto attempting to solve crossword puzzles in a typical week,and the fourth question asked about the number of hours perweek spent on other word puzzles or games, such asacrostics, word jumbles, or Scrabble. Our assumption was

134HAMBRICK, SALTHOUSE, AND MEINZthat information about time investment would be slightlydifferent than information about the number of puzzlesattempted but that both are reflections of current experience.The final question was designed to assess cumulativeexperience and asked about the number of years for whichthe individual had attempted to solve at least one crosswordpuzzle per week.Four summary measures of experience also were analyzedin each of the studies. One measure consisted of the totalnumber of crossword puzzles of any type attempted perweek, and another consisted of the total number of hours perweek spent on word puzzles or games. A third measure was acomposite index of current experience formed by averagingthe z scores for the total number of puzzles per weekmeasure and the total hours per week measure. Finally, thefourth measure was an attempt to represent all aspects ofexperience and consisted of the first principal componentfrom a principal-components analysis of the five originalexperience measures.A second question concerning moderators of age relationson fluid and crystallized cognition examined in this projectwas whether the level of self-reported interest in a

crossword puzzles is also consistent with the reports of a number of participants in the current project.1 That is, when asked to describe the steps they follow when working on crossword puzzles most said that they answer the easy items first and then return to work on items with letters from intersecting words. Some respondents reported that .

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