Learning disorders and puzzles.

[Cainkane1]

Over the years I have lost much of my short term memory. I am able to work crossword puzzles, cryptograms and jumble puzzles but sudoku which requires short term memory I cannot master. Its aggravating to watch someone else do them.


I was sitting in a chair waiting to get my haircut and I was sitting next to an asian lady who was tearing the sudoku puzzle up. She appeared to be counting. I remarked after she got through as to impressed I was. She saw my finished crossword puzzle and she told me how impressed she was with that.

She was unable to do the crossowrd because her native language was japanese so that explained her inability to work an english language crossword puzzle. However my lack of short term memory keeps me from doing sudoku. This sucks big time.

 

[Ocelot]

I too haev rather poor short term memory but greatly enjoy sudoku. I simply methodical and scribble notes around the edge and in the corners of the cells.

 

[Professor Yaffle]

I have ok short term memory, but I still write notes in the corners of cells for more difficult puzzles.

 

[Myriad]

Were you once able to do Sudoku puzzles but are now no longer able? Or have you never been able to do them?

I ask because most of the basic solving techniques I know and use do not depend on short term memory to any significant degree (at least no more than for doing a crossword puzzle, where one must at least remember the grid number long enough to look up the clue, and remember the clue long enough to refer back to the grid to check for length and for already filled in letters).

Is it possible that you are making assumptions about how Sudoku are supposed to be solved, imagining more difficult more memory-intensive methods than are actually needed? Any of the many books or web sites on Sudoku solving techniques could answer that question.

My short term memory seems about average, but I don't rely on it to solve Sudoku. For instance if I've narrowed down a square to two possible numbers, I write those numbers small in the square rather than try to remember things like that for a lot of squares at once. Likewise I'll make notations if I've narrowed down the position of a certain number in a 3x3 square to one of two or three squares. My grids sometimes end up looking like the wiring diagram for a UFO by the time I'm done, but they get solved.

In years of working at a neurophysiology lab where many different kinds of cognitive testing were routinely performed, I noticed that most people strongly dislike tasks that tax their short term memory. I doubt many people would find Sudoku solving enjoyable if it were as memory-intensive as you think it is.

Respectfully,
Myriad

 

[Cainkane1]

Were you once able to do Sudoku puzzles but are now no longer able? Or have you never been able to do them?

I ask because most of the basic solving techniques I know and use do not depend on short term memory to any significant degree (at least no more than for doing a crossword puzzle, where one must at least remember the grid number long enough to look up the clue, and remember the clue long enough to refer back to the grid to check for length and for already filled in letters).

Is it possible that you are making assumptions about how Sudoku are supposed to be solved, imagining more difficult more memory-intensive methods than are actually needed? Any of the many books or web sites on Sudoku solving techniques could answer that question.

My short term memory seems about average, but I don't rely on it to solve Sudoku. For instance if I've narrowed down a square to two possible numbers, I write those numbers small in the square rather than try to remember things like that for a lot of squares at once. Likewise I'll make notations if I've narrowed down the position of a certain number in a 3x3 square to one of two or three squares. My grids sometimes end up looking like the wiring diagram for a UFO by the time I'm done, but they get solved.

In years of working at a neurophysiology lab where many different kinds of cognitive testing were routinely performed, I noticed that most people strongly dislike tasks that tax their short term memory. I doubt many people would find Sudoku solving enjoyable if it were as memory-intensive as you think it is.

Respectfully,
Myriad

Thank you for the advice. You may be right. I've only been trying to solve these puzzles for a relatively short time. Perhaps all I need is pointers.

 

[Safe-Keeper]

Solving crossword puzzles that are not in your native language is indeed hard, as your vocabulary is smaller. If Japanese doesn't have many synonyms, that might contribute to the challenge also.

 

[dropzone]

One daughter is epileptic and x-rays show that her left-temporal lobe is close to Terry Scaivo-water. Her non-epileptic-twin is endlessly POed that, in the midst of a seizure, she can keep working on a Sudoku puzzle.