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Analogies Are Mind Expanders If you'd like to truly sharpen your ability to think associatively and to open up some exciting neural pathways in the bargain, doing exercises involving analogies may be just the think to add to your Braintenance regimen. These exercises even improve you pattern recognition, total cognition and creative thinking. If you'd like to think outside of the box (and keep your mind fresh in the process), analogies are wonderful tools. An analogy ( dog is to puppy as cat is to kitten , or, as it commonly appears on standardized tests, especially in higher grades: dog : puppy :: cat : kitten ) is a comparison between two things that are usually thought to be different from each other, but have some similarities. They help us understand things by making connections and seeing relationships between them based on knowledge we already possess. Analogies are a ubiquitous staple of standardized tests. This type of comparison plays a significant role not only in im...

There are two different types of analysis and learning relating to our ability to see and recognize patterns and relationships. One method is extrapolative, which means finding the next item in a sequence of items. The second method is interpolative, which means finding the missing item somewhere in the middle of a sequence of items. We are expressing ourselves interpolatively when we average items -- for example when you are told that an item will cost between $10.00 and $20.00, your mind averages the two together and you think of a "middle" or simple mean average price of $15.00. This is how most people think without realizing that they are doing it. In fact, if you were told that the price would be on the higher side, you would probably interpolate the anticipated price as $17.50 -- we do this by first finding the mean, and then by finding a second mean (or 'derivative mean') between the first mean and the maximum. Our mind dices and slices when we are asked to es...

Two essential components of intelligence are the ability to recognize (and extrapolate) patterns, and the ability to simply memorize strings of randomized data. Each requires the use of different parts of the brain. Alternating between one and the other creates an increase in both abilities plus increases neuronal plasticity and problem-solving ability. For each of the following strings of data, do the following: 1) Recite all of the data points from memory after looking at the data for no longer than two minutes; 2) Recite all of the data points backwards from memory after looking at the data for another minute; 3) If you recognize a pattern, find the next data point. NOTE: Do not look back to previous strings in working on this exercise! --------------- STRING A: 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, 14 ... STRING B: 1, 3, 2, 4, 3, 5, 4, 6, 5, 7 ... STRING C: 3, 7, 5, 8, 3, 9, 6, 11, 2 ... STRING D: Apple, Bicycle, Carnival, Donut, Energy, Footprint ... STRING E: Carbon, Log, Melon, River, Wheel, Toe ...

Did you know that navigating your way through mazes can increase your total memory, recall and cognition? Did you know that this simple recreational activity (which only requires a pencil and a mind) also delays the outset of senile dementia , enhances your ability to focus, improves your abstract reasoning , improves your ability to plan and carries with it untold and countless other benefits. Mazes are wonderful mental muscle builders. Individuals tend to attack mazes (on paper or on sketch screen applications on mobile devices ) using any one of several approaches: 1) Brute Force Adherents, who only make a cursory inspection of the maze, followed by high-speed trial and error attempts, with each attempt usually getting than the one which preceded it and terminated at an earlier stopping point; 2) Center - Out Examiners, who view the whole maze and first seek to identify the center, and psychologically work their way outward to the entryway of the maze befor putting stylus to scree...

Analogies are the tiniest components of thoughts and communications. Constructing good analogies is a skill. Seeing the logic in partial analogies presented to you (i.e., where a term is missing) builds your associative intelligence, pattern recognition skills, cause and effect reasoning and your verbal acuity. Analogies are mental muscle builders. Here are several simple ones to give you a small jolt of electromagnetic and biochemical stimulation today. Enjoy them! Fill in each blank with the best possible answer . 1. Century is to __________ as dollar is to dime. 2. __________ is to bottom as up is to down. 3.Hawk is to _____________ as war is to peace. 4. Cat is to kitten as lion is to ______________. 5. Tree is to forest as star is to _____________. 6. _____________ is to stage as chemist is to laboratory. 7. Inventor is to Edison as _________________ is to Columbus. 8. China is to __________ as Canada is to North America. 9. __________ is to moon as day is to night. 10. Hand is ...

It's wonderful to be creative with language. While I have never actually heard of a resident (in good standing) named Texticles ( pronounced : text' -e- kleez) living atop the famed Mt. Olympus (in the same neighborhood as Zeus and the rest of those characters of legend), it would seem to make sense. This is not actually a Lingovation -- it is a comedic mockery of the structure and sound of language. It brings to mind Hercules , Damocles , Demosthenes , but it sounds a tad racy. I don't have to say it - it is funnier when left to the imagination Speaking of these sound-alikes, I almost fell out of my seat in school when our Philosophy professor mentioned 'Balzac'. It sounded rather similar to something else. This word mimicry ("sound-alikes" seems so juvenile) is a sort of patterning behavior, usually involving the number of syllables and a certain cadence. If I could do it with a straight face, and if I delivered the message rapidly enough, I could int...

In my last post, I made some observations about the nature of intelligence, plasticity, cognition , learning and cognitive enhancement . Toward the end of that post, I left you with a group of simple (what a subjective term that is!) sequences to complete. Here they are again, with the next number (found through pattern recognition ) placed there for you in red . A) 1, 3, 6, 10, 15, ?  21 B) 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, ?  21 C) 1000, 0100, 0010, 0001, 1000 ? 0100 D) 1, 4, 9, 16, 25 ? 36 E) 200, 3000, 40000, 500000, ? 6000000 F) 1, 100, 2, 99, 3, 98, 4, ? 97 G) 1.21, 2.32, 3.43, 4.54, ? 5.65 --------------------- I'll let you ponder on those answers for a day or so. If you can't figure out how we arrived at them, don't fret. Some were tough. And I will show you the pattern underlying each of these sequences of numbers. Observation : In verbal communications, we read between the lines. In numeric or alphanumeric pattern recognition, we must read between the items that comprise t...

Your mental capacity , plasticity, memory, recall and deductive reasoning are all dramatically enhanced by your ability to recognize patterns and to extrapolate (or generalize) from them. In some cerebral circles, the NICs ( nerds-in-charge ) refer to this phenomenon as "learning a rule." This notion has great applicability in the world of artificial intelligence (AI) , but it is the shining key to a means of improving our own intelligence as well as increasing the actual speed of thought . Imagine being able to think faster because you are able to make 'connections' more rapidly? This skill is valuable to cultivate. Not surprisingly, it is a skill that can be improved by simple exercise. Pattern recognition skills are involved in every aspect of gaming, athletics, problem-solving and life.  The more different (and complex) patterns that we are able to recognize from prior exposure, the easier and faster it will be for us to recognize new patterns. By the way, s...