One brain-teasing game that can easily be adapted to the internet age is one that involves searching for particular words within either a square or rectangular box. One recent example of the latter challenges those that undertake the effort to see which of nine words can be detected first.
The words are within a group of 60 letters that are placed 10 across and six down. The nine specific words that make up the test are: coach, fun, money, no, other, tea, team, wealth and you.
Tests of this nature will inevitably bring about nine different answers, since every individual’s brain works in a different manner. One specific word may immediately jump out because of where that person was specifically looking or whether they were focusing on the horizontal or vertical possibilities.
In looking at the test, one word, other, is noticeably absent. None of the three O’s within the puzzle are situated next to a T, which precludes the word from being found. Six other words are presented in horizontal fashion and may be more likely to be among the ones that an individual will discover first. The two remaining words also possess the ability to jump out to a person that takes a different perspective.
The polling of which word was selected indicates that “team” immediately jumps out to 29 percent of the over 27,000 people that took up the challenge. The only other two words to reach double figures were “fun” and “wealth.” Even though it can’t be found on the board, the word “other” was still selected by two percent of those looking at the puzzle. That constitutes nearly 550 people that made such a choice.
The comments made by internet users about which particular word they detected first appear to bear out the wide range of detection skills that these sort of tests bring about. Others question the value of the test itself.
