Overview

An anasearch is a multi-part puzzle combining features of anagrams, crossword puzzles, and word searches. First, we'll give you a series of numbers which you translate into letters by the following rule: 1 = A, 2 = B, and so on. The result will be a word or (if there's a space in the number series) two words. For example: 14  1  2    12  5  7 would be NAB LEG.

 

How to Begin
Once you've written out the letters in a note pad as mentioned above, you arrange those letters into a different word (or words) following a clue accompanying the numbers. For example: the clue "Bracelet" would lead you from NAB LEG to BANGLE.

 

 

Some clues are clever, others (like the one just given) are more pedestrian. The tricky clues make reference to both the solution and the source. "Long-winded orator", for example, could get you from SNORE AT to SENATOR; "Drinkable to a Polonais" could get you from POLE TAB to POTABLE.

 

Next, you fill in an accompanying numbered grid by the same principle you used for the original translation of the number series into letters: 1 = A, etc. The final step is to find and circle the solved anagrams in the grid. Note that the words in the grid may run diagonally in either direction, up as well as down, and across in both directions.

 

 

 

If you like anagrams but don’t like word searches, you can just ignore the grid. If you want to make the puzzle harder, skip the first step of translating the numbers into letters. That way, all you’ll have is a clue with nothing but the number of letters to help you get the solution (kind of like a crossword puzzle without any help from intersecting answers).

 

You can also ignore the clues in solving the anagrams — but you should always check your answer against the clue, since many of the anagrams have multiple possible solutions. For example, SEE GRANT could be rearranged into either SERGEANT or ESTRANGE; the clue “Reason to part” tells you the latter is correct.

 

The many steps in an anasearch puzzle draw many different brain skills. The initial step of translating numbers into letters taxes your short-term or working memory (barring, at least, the unlikely event that you’ve already memorized the ordinal placement of every single letter of the alphabet). If the first item is 2  5  20, for example, you may automatically know that 2 = B, but most people will have to count from the beginning of the alphabet to figure out that 5 = E. Almost everyone has to count from A to get a letter value for 20 (which is T).

 

If the next line has 3  1  18, you can deduce the letter value for 18 either by counting from A all over again (the simple-minded approach), or you can count two letters backwards from T to get R — which taxes your attention, concentration, or what psychologists call mental tracking abilities. And if, a few lines down, 20 re-appears, you can either count from A again, or look back at the first line to remind yourself of the letter value, or try to remember the letter value from a few lines back. The first approach is simple-minded and time-consuming, the second is quicker but dependent on a crutch, while the third taxes your short-term memory and — if you remember well — can be quicker than looking back. By the time you get to the end of the puzzle, you probably will have memorized at least some number-letter correspondences you didn't already know.

 

The parts of your brain you’ll be using are likewise numerous. As with the other letter and word manipulation puzzles (analocks, alphabetics, etc.), you’ll be using word-retrieval and semantic interpretation regions of your left-hemisphere (Broca’s and Wernicke’s areas, for example). The added task of devising a quick and efficient system for translating numbers into their corresponding letters will tax “executive-attention” and planning regions of your frontal lobes, including areas to the front of Broca's. Recent PET scan studies show particularly strong activation of the left frontal lobe when verbal exercises impose a heavy burden on your working memory.

 

The less you rely on the crutch of looking back when you’re translating the numbers into letters, the more you’ll be using your working memory skills. Also, the less you look back, the more likely you'll end up memorizing at least some of the correspondences. If you were to do anasearch puzzles regularly, repeated encounters with the number-values of all the letters of the alphabet would consolidate that knowledge into your long-term memory, which might come in handy for cryptic notes or party tricks.

Beware of Experimenting
with Random Combinations
Mistakes can be costly because elapsed time is key to your score. If you enter two wrong letters in any one square, that square will lock until a correct letter is placed in another square in the grid. You can disable this 2-tries lockout by checking the box located in the puzzle.

Scoring
A timing clock starts automatically when you enter your first letter into the game-grid. It runs until you have entered a correct letter into each of the spaces in the game-grid. Your score will show the ratio of total correct responses to total possible responses. It will also show your total elapsed time.

Select Your Own Difficulty Levels
Each anasearch is given a Brain-Gain Level of 1 (easiest), 2 (medium), or 3 (hardest). Click on one of these links to try games at the level you like. To make any game more difficult, try not to look at the Help links. But if you're having difficulty getting started, HELP #1 contains clues to the correct words and HELP #2 gives the correct answer to one of the anagrams. You are also provided with ALPHABET-NUMBER sequence link, which should be viewed only if you are a starter.

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