In de afgelopen weken is een webgebaseerde woordpuzzel genaamd Wordle een populaire dagelijkse afleiding geworden. Plots zijn miljoenen mensen gefocust op hun vocabulaire van vijfletterige woorden en zijn ze zich nieuw bewust van concepten zoals letterfrequentie en letterpositie terwijl ze strategieën bedenken over de beste openingswoorden en snellere oplossingen.

Voor deze mensen is Wordle boeiend. Eerder onderzoek kan ons helpen begrijpen hoe onze hersenen reageren op woordspelletjes en waarom we van ze houden.

Wordle is een puzzel voor één speler die elementen van verschillende spellen combineert, waaronder Scrabble en Battleship. Mijn collega's en ik hebben Scrabble bestudeerd als een manier om te begrijpen hoe taal in de hersenen wordt verwerkt en hoe die verwerking verandert door ervaring.

Dit is je brein op Scrabble

Competitieve Scrabble-spelers zijn mensen die veel tijd besteden aan het spelen van Scrabble, het deelnemen aan Scrabble-toernooien, het onthouden van woordenlijsten en het oefenen van anagrammen - het schudden van sets letters om verschillende woorden te creëren.

Net als schakers worden competitieve Scrabble-spelers gerangschikt in een internationaal beoordelingssysteem op basis van toernooiresultaten. We rekruteerden competitieve spelers van Scrabble-toernooien en clubs en gaven ze een reeks taken om te begrijpen hoe al deze Scrabble-oefeningen en -spelen hun mentale processen veranderen.

In ons eerste onderzoek ontdekten we dat competitieve Scrabble-spelers woorden sneller herkenden dan degenen die niet routinematig Scrabble speelden, vooral wanneer woorden verticaal werden gepresenteerd. Verticale woordpresentatie is ongebruikelijk in geschreven Engels, maar gebruikelijk in Scrabble, en competitieve spelers zijn erg goed in het herkennen van verticale woorden.

We ontdekten ook dat Scrabble-spelers woorden snel herkenden zonder de woordbetekenis volledig te verwerken. Dit komt waarschijnlijk omdat je in Scrabble moet weten of verschillende letterreeksen legale toneelstukken vormen, maar je hoeft niet echt te weten wat die woorden betekenen.

We also used brain imaging to study how all those years of intensive practice might have altered brain processes for language in competitive Scrabble players.

We found that when recognizing words and making simple decisions about them, competitive Scrabble players used a different network of brain areas than those who didn't play Scrabble competitively. Scrabble experts made use of brain regions not typically associated with word meaning retrieval, but rather those associated with visual memory and perception.

A Scrabble habit makes you … good at Scrabble

We wondered whether the effects of Scrabble practice that we observed in competitive players have benefits beyond Scrabble. Does playing lots of Scrabble make you good at anything else? The answer seems to be no.

We investigated that question by giving competitive Scrabble players and a group of Scrabble non-experts a task that was similar to Scrabble but used symbols instead of letters. In that task, Scrabble players were no better than anyone else in terms of their processing speed or accuracy.

We also investigated whether Scrabble expertise protects players from the effects of brain aging. Again, the answer seems to be no. Older Scrabble players still show the normal effects of aging, like slower processing speed.

In both Scrabble and Wordle, players need to search their word memory based on letters, shuffle letters across positions to find solutions or plays—the meaning of the words is irrelevant. Because of these similarities, many of the brain processes involved in Scrabble are probably also engaged when solving Wordles.

Our research with people who are not Scrabble experts shows that mental processes start to change quite quickly when people are asked to take on a new word recognition task. That means it's very likely your Wordle habit has already caused slight changes in the brain processes you use to solve the puzzles.

Those changes help you to play Wordle, but probably don't help you with anything else.

Why do some people love puzzles?

Wordle has become a habit for millions, but for others it's not appealing.

There are probably lots of reasons for this, but one explanation could be differences in what people find motivating. Some people enjoy puzzles and thinking challenges more than others. This type of motivation is referred to as need for cognition, and people who have a high need for cognition tend to seek out mental challenges like word games and puzzles.

In Scrabble, there are usually multiple possible plays that could advance the game, but Worldles have a single right answer. With only one Wordle released per day, everyone is solving the same puzzle. The online game's sharing options also allow us to share our results with others without giving the answer away.

That means Wordle is also creating an opportunity for shared experience at a time when many people are feeling disconnected from others. A Wordle habit is not likely to make you smarter or ward off brain aging, but it may give you a daily dose of complex cognition combined with social interaction—and that can be a very good thing.