ANAGRAM SOLUTION AS RELATED TO ADULT AGE, ANAGRAM DIFFICULTY, AND EXPERIENCE IN SOLVING CROSSWORD PUZZLES

Anagram solution, as related to anagram difficulty, adult age, and fre quency of solving crossword puzzles, was examined. Anagrams of three d ifficulty levels, defined in terms of normative solution times, were i nitially used in Experiment 1. Subsequently, the data were reanalyzed using two levels of difficulty, defined in terms of solution word freq uency. Two levels of anagram difficulty, defined by whether the anagra m was presented in the form of a word or nonword, were used in Experim ent 2. Anagram solution was negatively related to anagram difficulty a nd positively related to frequency of solving crossword puzzles. With the exception of the second set of analyses from Experiment 1, no supp ort was found for the complexity hypothesis, that is, the hypothesis t hat age differences in anagram solution would increase with anagram di fficulty. The pattern of results was consistent with the lifestyle hyp othesis, that is, the hypothesis that age differences in anagram solut ion would be greater for infrequent than for frequent solvers of cross word puzzles, although significantly so only in Experiment 2.