The « Aha! » -Fund also had a profound impact on our choice of a representative task to capture the essence of expertise in cryptic solution during laboratory studies. Other similar experiences (Deihim-Aazami, 1999; Tuffiash et al., 2007) had followed Groot`s extremely influential paradigms, with isolated and short challenges (from Groot, 1946/1965; Gobet et al., 2004), we felt that this would produce only poor and relatively trivial data on process tracking in our field of research, when there were no important areas of interest. In fact, Tuffiash acknowledged similar concerns in its Scrabble study and noted that « the oral reports of our SCRABBLE players were primarily made up of candidate solution word strings » (Tuffiash et al., 2007, p. 129), in response to a « best-next-move » one-shot challenge that limited their subsequent analysis to a head count of bingo words, non-bingo words and illegal words. Similarly, Deihim-Aazami reported a high proportion of thin reactions to the task of Talk Aloud (the solution of 37 independent indices without grid) and commented that « many experts gave incomplete verbalizations, due to the simplicity of the indices. » (Deihim-Aazami, 1999, p. 124). hours for the resolution of expertly encrypted crossword puzzles (O: M – 7.02; H: M – 7.27; S: M – 7.85); However, the median was 6 hours in all groups. This equates to about 45 min-1 hours per day or 1-2 words of blocked crosses at typical solution speeds. The analysis of the difference in the distribution of crossword-resolution hours in the three groups was not statistically significant [H (2) – 2.27, p – 0.321]. H3: The cryptic crossword solution regularly produces « Aha! » or moments of discernment that support the hypothesis that cryptic indication is a classic type of error discernment problem; and that this enjoyable experience is an important driver of cryptic crosswordization; H5: the solution is essentially an intrinsically motivated activity, which is generally not carried out for public recognition or awards3; Levels of practice and engagement, both for experts and non-expert solvers, would therefore be low and relatively unstructured compared to areas of high competitive performance such as chess and music; (ii) A specific aptitude for cryptographic or mathematical thinking. The similarity of cryptic crossword puzzles to algebra or computer programming was noted in passing (Manley, 2014), but did not attract much scientific attention.
02/12/2020