Brain teaser game to stimulate your temporal lobes
Do you know where words are stored in your brain?
In your temporal lobe!
As you know, the brain has two sides (two hemispheres) connected by the corpus callosum. So you have one temporal lobe on each side of the brain.
If you are right-handed, your language is stored mostly in your left temporal lobe. If you are left-handed, you are not so lateralized and your language is stored a bit on both sides of your brain in the temporal lobes.
Words in the brain are not stored randomly. They seemed to be quite organized. Research has shown that words that are often heard together (such as salt and pepper) or words that share some meaning (such as nurse and doctor) are connected or associated in the brain. Once you hear one, the other is activated.
Here is a mental exercise whose aim is to stimulate the connections or associations between words in your temporal lobe.
In the left column you have a pair of words. Your goal is to find a third word that is connected or associated with both of these two words.
The first pair is PIANO and LOCK. The answer is KEY. The word key is connected with both the word piano and the word lock: there are KEYS on a piano and you use a KEY to lock doors.
Key is what is called a homograph: a word that has more than one meaning but is always spelled the same.
Ready to stimulate connections in your temporal lobe(s)? Enjoy!
(Solutions are below. Please don’t check them until you have tried to solve all the pairs!)
1. LOCK — PIANO
2. SHIP — CARD
3. TREE — CAR
4. SCHOOL — EYE
5. PILLOW — COURT
6. RIVER — MONEY
7. BED — PAPER
8. ARMY — WATER
9. TENNIS — NOISE
10. EGYPTIAN — MOTHER
11. SMOKER — PLUMBER
— This article was written by Pascale Michelon, Ph. D., for SharpBrains.com. Dr. Michelon has a Ph.D. in Cognitive Psychology and has worked as a Research Scientist at Washington University in Saint Louis, in the Psychology Department. She conducted several research projects to understand how the brain makes use of visual information and memorizes facts.
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SOLUTIONS
1. LOCK — PIANO > KEY
2. SHIP — CARD > Deck
3. TREE — CAR > Trunk
4. SCHOOL — EYE > Pupil (Exam and Private are also possible)
5. PILLOW — COURT > Case
6. RIVER — MONEY > Bank (Flow is also possible)
7. BED — PAPER > Sheet
8. ARMY — WATER > Tank
9. TENNIS — NOISE > Racket
10. EGYPTIAN — MOTHER > Mummy
11. SMOKER — PLUMBER > Pipe
Next brain teaser:
- 14. Join this party for polyglots
I was amazed. After several negative, disappointing tries, I was finally able to get the last 5 correct. I had to nudge my brain and get into the swing of it, I guess. At 62, things are a bit harder than they used to be!
I got FISH for number 4. It’s fun to see the different answers people get. I love it!
8 guns
11 crack .. lol
I have very different answers. For 5. I have sleep can you figure out why? For 6. I have flat, paper and beds are flat. For 8. I have screams tennis players scream when they hit the ball and one component of noise are screams ‚and for 11 I got stink (odor), a smoker always stinks and a plumber stinks when he works with pipes (you know what kind of pipes)
Maybe I belong to too many volunteer organizations but I got phone for tree and car. phone tree and car phone
Mary: great job!
Naomi: indeed! but that’s good…
Pascale: congratulations on having prepared this very engaging and fun exercise!
For 3 all i could come up with was Tire like a tire swing lol.
also if you wanted for # 9 you can change it to Tennis — Fire > Match.
army is a branch of military..and branch is a tributary stream!
because it is fun to see what other answers are out there…I came up with “spark” for 11.
I came up with Queen and King for number 5. like in Royal Court
#7 bed of/paper roses
Not necessarily a homograph but neither is sheet — fabric or paper, it’s still the same meaning.
I’m the organizer for a Brain Fitness group at my office. It’s a daily session that lasts an hour. I’ve used many of this site’s different games and teasers but out of all we’ve played the most requested is the Word Association game above. I have spent several hours searching for word association games like the one above and haven’t come up with anything. Could you please provide some websites or books that i can refer to for this type of game? It would be most appreciated. Thanks!
Hello Raquelle, great to hear you are doing that.
We offer workshops, webinars and services for companies; why don’t you email us at information at sharpbrains dot com? Just put your name in the Subject Line and we’ll recognize it (as long as we remember it…)
I got “pad” for bed and paper..
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Was really stumped by this little quiz, and amazed at my my inability to answer a single one correctly. I only spent a few minutes and when a word wasn’t “right there” to pop up I moved on. I then started over and put more thought into it, and only then was I able to force a few choices. Again, none that matched the provided answers. Is this bekause I don’t think in this manner, or something else? I’m really taken aback by this result. I’m right-handed by the way! ;-)
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# Alvaro
Wow, hard quiz?i can’t answer a single one.… :( i don’t really get it either.
Dont worry Bradley,i will give company for you. me too dint get a answer for a single.…cheers
Good work!!
I cant guess a single answer,i think my brain is sleeping,if it is awaken it can find all the answer.lol
how about brigade for Army — Water
Fun game!
Regular feature?
“-”
dash
How about “draft” for number 2, or am I giving away my age to mention draftcard?
I got “Family” for 3…Family Tree and Family Car. I guess I’ve been a dad too long :-)
If finding the homograph stimulates the brain, wouldn’t creating a pair and the answer do so even more so?
For example:
1. Congressmen — notebook
2. universal — bar
I did okay, but know this type of puzzle and so took thinking time. For those who didn’t get any (and I know I’m late), it will take time to get used to this. It’s ‘another way’ of thinking.
For teachers (any subject, but I was English), such lessons as this are very useful and so much fun that the students don’t seem to realize they are helping themselves.
I am waiting for the French Open (in June, I think… long wait) and chose ‘slam’ for tennis and noise. Sigh!
Larry: you’re right. We’ll incorporate that the next time we publish a similar teaser.
Jane: great point. It’s another way of thinking…and precisely that novelty and challenge, slightly beyond our comfort level, is what makes great brain exercise.
We often say that it is completely different to do the first crossword puzzle than the millionth one. The marginal “brain exercise” value of the latter is pretty limited, whereas the former was excellent.
This teaser bring that point home…for those who didn’t get answers-please remember that the main benefit comes from trying.