Deja Vu?

September 16, 2006 7:52 PM

Does anyone know of the research paper (study) where they had people do a day-old crossword and they claimed that those people were able to solve those easier than new crossword puzzles? I saw it referenced in "Waking Life" and was wondering if it were a real paper.
posted by tasty to science & nature (8 comments total)

Rupert Sheldrake came up with that theory. He calls it "morphic resonance." Scientific American & Discover have written about it. I didn't see actual published results for the crossword puzzle experiment specifically, though.
posted by needs more cowbell at 8:03 PM on September 16, 2006

The internets reveal all:

"The experiment turns out to have been conducted by a graduate student named Monica English. She summarized her results in the Noetic Sciences Bulletin, Autumn 1991, pg 1. She also presented her findings in full as her thesis at the University of Nottingham but never published them in a journal. "

(source)
posted by greatgefilte at 8:08 PM on September 16, 2006

(The link has some more details about the experiment.)
posted by greatgefilte at 8:09 PM on September 16, 2006

More googling reveals this (despite the painful font and unprofessional appearance, it turned up in a Google Scholar search). And there's a bit more here.
posted by needs more cowbell at 8:11 PM on September 16, 2006

I dont know about all papers, but the one in our area gets harder as the week progresses from monday to sunday. so if the cw was from the day before, the questions themselves would be easier, right?
posted by gilsonal at 9:24 PM on September 16, 2006

gilsonal makes a good point -- if the student wasn't familiar with crosswords and their harder-as-the-week-progresses tradition, she may have misdesigned the experiment. "Yesterday's" crossword will always be easier except on Mondays.

On a tangent, when I used to do the NYT crossword, I always had more trouble with Tuesdays than Wednesdays, which seemed weird.
posted by cps at 9:40 PM on September 16, 2006

From greatgefilte's link, as I understand it: There were two groups that each tried to complete two puzzles. On the second puzzle, one group waited until the day after publication, and scored slightly higher. The fact that the puzzle increases in difficulty over the week doesn't seem relevant.
posted by sixacross at 9:44 PM on September 16, 2006

There was a Quirks and Quarks episode that mentioned a study on rats in a maze which had similar implications regarding the collective unconscious. This is all I could find about it, but at least it proves I didn't just imagine it :P
posted by Chuckles at 12:39 AM on September 17, 2006