Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Yes on the spatial ability. (And logic plus patience.) I was always very good at puzzles, the larger, the more complex, the better even as a small child. As a teenager I took the ASVAB test (military placement test given to the senior class at my highschool) and scored extremely high on the spatial relationship portion. I had recruiters calling from nearly every branch of the military though I had no interest in the military.
A few years later I took the Air Traffic Control test which was heavily loaded with spatial and some logic problems. There were close to 100 people in the test room and everyone except myself and a man about my age were struggling with the test and didn't finish in time. I was called by the FAA and was hired, had a career in and retired from ATC. I'm still good at puzzles and in the winter I occasionally plop one out on the kitchen table to mess with when I have a slow moment.
Some brains are designed for this and others aren't. You can learn somewhat but most of it is how you are wired.
Boy my brain sure isn't. I don't even want to look at them. But I can see how it might be zen-like. It seems that back in childhood, the pieces were all shaped differently; now they all look like the same cut-out shape.
I have no patience for jigsaw puzzles, either. Not as a kid, not today. To me, the worst thing about jigsaw puzzles, is the "so close, yet so far away" factor. That's when you have a piece that just barely fits, but is less than a millimeter too big. Especially when the picture on each piece matches up, like when both pieces are the same solid color.
One time, I cheated, and ruined a puzzle by going that. I used a piece of sandpaper to file down a few pieces that almost fit---the pictures even matched up perfectly---but were ever-so-slightly too big. They finally fit, and didn't even look altered. But my parents caught me, and took away the puzzle . I pretty much laid off jigsaw puzzles ever since. I did give them another shot a few times, but never enjoyed it.
Am I the only one who ever tried to alter the puzzle pieces to make them fit?
Last edited by MillennialUrbanist; 11-08-2017 at 11:39 AM..
You may not be the only one... but it does seem to run contrary to the whole point of the jigsaw puzzle.
True... but two things. One, I was 12. Two, the "so close, yet so far away" factor really got on my nerves after a while. Besides, I sanded down less than a millimeter of a piece, not use scissors to cut a piece into a whole new shape.
I also have a half-sister who did poorly academically. But, she could nail puzzles. I do okay but am not as adept as she is. I excelled academically but also scored highly on spatial ability. We are all wired differently.
Exactly. I do very well in most areas of IQ tests but I completely flunk the spatial part. My sense of direction is horrendous, so bad that when I believe I need to drive a certain direction on a new route (sans GPS), I go the opposite way. I'm usually right using that strategy.
On the Port Townsend-Coupeville Ferry Run in Washington state,there is at least one puzzle on one of the tables. It is a short run, about 30 minutes so is probably for the walk-ons who commute. I don’t know if the ferry personnel put it there or one of the riders. Someone is always working it.
There were a couple on the tables of the Bremerton-Seattle ferries a while back, too.
-------------
I do puzzles online and it really is a lot easier, because the pieces are all rightside up. You don't have to turn them around to see if they fit or not.
I'm pretty good at puzzles. I know I've always tested extremely high in spatial perception (that's supposed to be unusual in women), but I use color more than I use shape in putting the pieces together. It's why I like puzzles with lots of colors.
I do puzzles in the weirdest way. I like to group colors all together or objects, and then when I look for other pieces to go where I think they should, I'll see a piece and go, oh, I know where that goes, and I stick it in. It's like I recognize pieces while I'm doing other pieces.
I love doing Thomas Kinkade puzzles and now I'm doing the inside first and working my way outward, doing the edges last. Gives me a little more challenge. I'd love to do larger puzzles, but it's hard to keep more than 540 pieces on a computer monitor and still have room to do the puzzle, and I don't have room where I live to keep one out like that.
It's so hard to do puzzles with cats....you just get the edge pieces together, get up to refill the tea, and come back to find a cat has jumped on the table, slid partway across, knocked pieces on the floor, and is now batting at a few other.
Or...you get most of the puzzle put together and are down to filling in the last 2 pieces. Except, there is only 1 piece left. Months later, you find the last piece under the couch with chew marks from the cat.
Extra challenges.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
. I pretty much laid off jigsaw puzzles ever since. I did give them another shot a few times, but never enjoyed it.
