Mental gymnastics. Exercise number 4 for a winning brain: where did that word go?

Words, words, words… So Mina sang in one of her famous songs. But what happens in ours mind when we would like to pronounce one, but the one we are looking for remains right there, on the tip of the tongue and it doesn't come out. Except then, at a later moment, when she seems lost, suddenly showing up.

We're on the fourth bet of the heading un “winning brain”, the result of the collaboration of FIRST online with the professor Giuseppe Alfredo Iannoccari, neuropsychologist, professor at the State University of Milan and president of Assomensana, the association for the development and enhancement of mental activities. Every Sunday an exercise is proposed on FIRSTonline mental gymnastics that stimulates adifferent mental ability. In banner on the right on our home page all the exercises already published are grouped together, which have stimulated a different ability of our brain each time.

This new episode will be dedicated to what neuropsychology defines as "verbal fluency“: the process that is activated when the brain searches for and produces the words contained within the mental warehouse that contains all the lemmas we know, the so-called “lexical store“. We can imagine it as one library where the words learned and their respective meanings are stored. But alongside verbal fluency, the mental flexibility , planning. “These skills are important when we need to find the right words quickly and creatively” says Professor Iannoccari.

The basic rules

For each exercise you will be shown:

• which cognitive functions it stimulates
• what purpose does it serve in everyday life
• delivery to carry out the exercise
• how long should the execution time be?
• how to calculate the score
• the finish line for an optimal score
• how to make it more empowering
• which variations to adopt to continue doing so

Mental gymnastics exercise n.4: Augmented Words

With the new exercise, three cognitive skills will be developed and strengthened:

• Verbal fluency
• Planning
• Mental flexibility

These skills are important when we need to find the right words quickly and creatively.

Delivery: Find words that, by inserting an extra letter in any position, become new words. Example: Sea + t =Mars. Apples + i =Honey

Execution time: dedicate three minutes, whenever you want.

Score: 10 points for each compound word.

Traguardo: Score at least 100 points in three minutes.

Strengthening: repeat the exercise whenever you want.

Here are the possible variations

Repeat the exercise in three different ways:

1. choose a word for each letter of the alphabet;
2. insert two letters instead of one;
3. remove a letter instead of adding it.

Call: Write your words in the comments 😉

Solution to exercise no. 3

21 + 25 = 46 – 6 = 40 X 5 = 200 : 2 = 100