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Solving puzzles requires you to combine what you already know with new information from the puzzle. Just like riddles, puzzles ask you to use existing knowledge and context clues to come up with an original, often tricky answer. Puzzles can help you learn to recognize patterns and order.  Puzzle games such as Tetris, as well as traditional jigsaw puzzles, require you to look at a situation in multiple ways to figure out the best solution. This process transfers well into solving riddles, too. Specific types of puzzles and games are best at developing specific types of skills. Thus, if you do a lot of crossword puzzles, you’ll probably get very good at crossword puzzles, but you may not see equivalent gains in other areas. It’s helpful to play a variety of games instead of focusing on only one type. The more you repeat a certain type of task, the less effort your brain needs to expend to perform it. Regularly alternating the types of games you play will help keep your brain from taking shortcuts. For example, you could read a complex news story and then write a short summary that boils down all the ideas into a few key ideas. Research suggests that this will help you look at the “big picture” as well as the details, a skill that also comes in handy when solving riddles. Rephrasing ideas into your own words may also help you develop linguistic flexibility and improve memory. It’s easier to remember ideas when you’ve taken the time to paraphrase them, because your brain has had to work to structure the ideas so that it understands them.
Solve puzzles daily. Alternate your brain games regularly. Try reading and then summarizing something complex.