best game for critical thinking

• Bipolar Disorder
• Therapy Center
• When To See a Therapist
• Types of Therapy
• Best Online Therapy
• Best Couples Therapy
• Managing Stress
• Sleep and Dreaming
• Understanding Emotions
• Self-Improvement
• Healthy Relationships
• Student Resources
• Personality Types
• Guided Meditations
• Verywell Mind Insights
• 2024 Verywell Mind 25
• Mental Health in the Classroom
• Editorial Process
• Meet Our Review Board
• Crisis Support

10 Best Brain Games to Keep Your Mind Sharp

Playing mind games is a no-brainer

 Mark Stibich, PhD, FIDSA, is a behavior change expert with experience helping individuals make lasting lifestyle improvements.

Amy Morin, LCSW, is a psychotherapist and international bestselling author. Her books, including "13 Things Mentally Strong People Don't Do," have been translated into more than 40 languages. Her TEDx talk,  "The Secret of Becoming Mentally Strong," is one of the most viewed talks of all time.

Aaron Johnson is a fact checker and expert on qualitative research design and methodology. 

Delmaine Donson / Getty Images

Happy Neuron

Brain age concentration training, my brain trainer.

People of all ages use brain-training games to improve mental functioning and prevent brain aging . Backing them up is research showing that brain-training games may help improve attention levels, memory, response time, logic skills, and other measures of cognitive function if played over a long timespan.

The brain is just like a muscle - it thrives on exercise! As a neurologist, I'm thrilled by the incredible potential of brain games to help people flex their mental muscles, activating underused brain circuits to sharpen cognition and skills like focus, speed, and memory.

From pen-and-paper Sudoku and crosswords to specialized brain training apps, options for brain games are plentiful. To give your brain a workout while having fun, try these games and activities that may improve your mental focus and fitness.

Peter Dazeley / Getty Images

Sudoku is a number placement game that relies on short-term memory. To complete a Sudoku puzzle, you have to look ahead and follow trails of consequences—if you put a 6 in this box, that one must be an 8 and this one a 4, and so on. This type of planning helps improve short-term memory and concentration.

You can play Sudoku online, on an app, or on paper. Look for a regular Sudoku in your newspaper, buy a book with a collection of puzzles, or download a free app for your phone or tablet.

Sudoku puzzles are available in varying degrees of difficulty. When you're starting out, play the easy games until you learn the rules. If you're playing on paper, use a pencil!

Lumosity is one of the most established brain training and mental fitness programs. You can sign up for a free account to play three games per day, or choose the subscription service for more offerings. Either way, you can keep track of your results and improvement.

One recent study showed that participants who played Lumosity's exercises for 15 minutes a day at least seven days a week for three weeks experienced improved attention and motor speed. You can use Lumosity via their website or download the Lumosity app on iOS and Android. Lumosity also has a meditation and mindfulness app called Lumosity Mind.

Carol Yepes / Getty Images

Crosswords are a classic brain trainer, accessing not only verbal language but memory from many dimensions of knowledge. There are many ways to do crossword puzzles, both online and off. If you receive a daily newspaper, you'll almost always get a crossword there. Or pick up a book of crosswords specifically suited to your skill level and interests.

You will also find many options for crossword puzzles online or via free or inexpensive apps. The AARP website offers a daily crossword that's free to everyone, whether or not you're a member of the group.

Elevate's games center on reading, writing, speaking, and math, and you can customize your training to focus on whichever areas you prefer. As with most other brain games, you can track your progress to see how your skills are improving.

You'll need to download an app to play Elevate 's 35 (and counting) different brain-training games, which have a strongly educational feel. It's free (with in-app purchases) and both iOS and Android versions have tens of thousands of five-star reviews.

Peak is another app-only option (available for iOS and Android) that provides brain games to help you work on focus, memory, problem-solving, mental agility, and more cognitive functions. If you're a competitive person, you might be motivated by seeing how you perform against other users. The app is free to use, but an inexpensive subscription unlocks more features.

Happy Neuron divides its games and activities into five critical brain areas: memory, attention, language, executive functions, and visual/spatial. Like Lumosity, it personalizes the training to fit you, tracks your progress, and the games are based on scientific research.

You must pay a monthly subscription fee to use the site, and its simplified app version is available for Android users only. Happy Neuron does, however, offer a free trial offer so you can see if you like the approach.

Claiming to have the world's largest collection of brain teasers, Braingle's free website provides more than 15,000 puzzles, games, and other brain teasers as well as an online community of enthusiasts. You can even create your own puzzles to give your brain a super workout. Braingle has a wide variety of offerings, including optical illusions, codes and ciphers, and trivia quizzes.

Queendom has thousands of personality tests and surveys. It also has an extensive collection of "brain tools"—including logic, verbal, spatial, and math puzzles; trivia quizzes; and aptitude tests—for you to exercise and test your brain. If you'd like to save results and scores, you'll need a free account. Some tests give you only snapshot results for free, and charge a fee for full reports.

Brain Age: Concentration Training / Nintendo Life

Brain Age Concentration Training is a brain training and mental fitness system for the Nintendo 3DS system. It includes a huge number of games to hone your concentration, memory, calculation, and other brain skills. It's fun, portable, and challenging. Brain Age is also available for the Nintendo Wii U, but not for the Switch, Nintendo's most up-to-date gaming system.

My Brain Trainer calls itself an online "brain gym." It is similar in format to, although less stylish than, Lumosity and Happy Neuron. It's also less expensive; a three-month subscription costs the same as a month on the other services. The annual subscription is an even bigger savings. You can try a challenge for free as well.

This website is full of games, puzzles, and other challenges designed to improve your mental fitness. The website recommends 10 minutes of brain training twice a day for the best effects. It also has a basic training program that claims to improve your mental speed.

This web-based puzzle game from The New York Times exploded in popularity in early 2022 and now counts millions of users worldwide. The premise is simple: Users get six tries to guess a five-letter word. Wordle's combination of problem-solving challenges and easy-to-use interface makes for a satisfying mental workout.

Keep in Mind

Remember, brain training isn't limited to games and puzzles; staying socially engaged, maintaining creative hobbies, and even working out can help to flex your brain and improve cognitive functioning. Find what feels good and works for you.

Make brain training a daily habit and build the mental reserves to delay cognitive decline!

Al-Thaqib A, Al-Sultan F, Al-Zahrani A, et al. Brain training games enhance cognitive function in healthy subjects .  Med Sci Monit Basic Res . 2018;24:63-69. doi:10.12659%2FMSMBR.909022

15 Fantastic Logic and Critical Thinking Games

Games are wonderful additions to any homeschool. In fact, we typically play at least one game a day – sometimes even gameschooling for an entire day!

Not only do games bring joy and lightheartedness to the school day, they can help teach new concepts and practice old ones.

One of the most important reasons I include games in our homeschool frequently is because they are amazing for building logic and critical thinking skills!

This post includes affiliate links.

If you’ve read any of my blog posts about brain training , you’ll know that I place a lot of value on building logical thinking skills in kids. Luckily, games are one of the best ways to do that – and they don’t even require much effort on our part!

While almost every game has logic and critical thinking value, some games are made specifically to give those skills a workout. I’ve included 15 of my favorites here for you!

Logic and Critical Thinking Games

Invasion of the Cow Snatchers – A creative, single player game that uses magnetic playing pieces as you maneuver a flying saucer around obstacles on a farm to beam up all the cattle.

Domino Maze – In this hands-on, single player game, you create fun domino mazes with a critical thinking twist as you set out to build based on challenge cards.

Thinking Putty Puzzle – This is another hands-on, single player game that “stretches” your thinking skills as you complete mazes with Thinking Putty.

Qwirkle – A family favorite, this game is kind of like Scrabble with shapes & colors. Your goal is to rack up as many points as possible as you work to complete symbol combinations.

Battleship – Coordinate graphing and logical thinking are required to sink all your opponent’s ships in this classic game for two players.

Mastermind – Another classic game for two players, Mastermind is truly a top pick for practicing logical thinking skills as you deduce a hidden code.

ZooLogic – This is such a cute single player game. You must figure out how to organize dogs, cats, and mice on puzzle cards so that no fights ensue between the animals.

Guess Who? – This is the perfect game to teach beginning critical thinking skills as you ask pertinent questions to figure out your opponent’s mystery character.

SET – Get ready to work logic skills faster than your opponents as everyone races to put together the next combination of cards based on shape, color, shading, and number.

Clue – A good, old-fashioned game of Clue is perfect for sharpening logic and critical thinking skills since the goal is to use deductive reasoning to solve the mystery before anyone else.

Cat Crimes – In this hands-on, single player logic puzzle, you place cat characters on the board based on clues you are given in order to determine which one is to blame for an oopsie that has occurred.

Codenames – While this game can be played with as few as four people, it’s great for a crowd, too. Spymasters use word clues to help their teams logically consider which cards on the table will locate friendly spy agents instead of foes.

Rover Control – This creative, single player coding game teaches basic programming skills through critical thinking puzzles in which a rover must go through various start to finish challenges.

Rush Hour – A classic, single player game, Rush Hour utilizes logical thinking as you work to get an ice cream truck out of a rush hour traffic jam.

Rook – This four player card game is another family favorite that is won by logic and critical thinking between teammates (as well as a little luck.)

Gameschooling

There are so many wonderful games available these days! I’ve written about favorites for other subjects plenty of times. Feel free to click on any of the images below to see a different list of games.

P.S. Games make great gifts for any holiday or birthday. They also make great family gifts or for people who are hospital or homebound. Games are one the most frequent things we give when a gift is in order!

One Comment

I loved this list! It’s great to see so many fun options for encouraging logical thinking in kids. I can’t wait to try out a few of these games with my family!

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

• Search Search Search …
• Search Search …

5 Board Games to Develop Critical Thinking Skills

Do you know why board games are called that way? It’s because you only play them when you’re bored .

Lousy puns aside, board games have come a long way from being just lowly time passers. Board games can be as simple as token-and-dice races to as complex as world building, role-playing sessions. But did you know that board games can give more than just fun and entertainment? Did you know that they can make you smarter?

Brief Evolution of Board Games

Board games or tabletop games have been around since 3500 BC, and are as many as there are cultures in the world. Board games have been found buried with the ancient pharaohs of Egypt. There are ancient books in Iran and China that talk about in-depth rules and descriptions of board games. Chess, a game enjoyed by many all over the world, originally came from India. Backgammon, a game still enjoyed today, has been played since 5,000 years ago in Mesopotamia.

People still enjoy these games even today, which proves the staying power of tabletop games. You might think that because technology has paved the way for more advanced and visually appealing games, casual tabletop games would’ve died out. But actually, board games have been gaining steady traction since 2010 . This is because the internet has actually made it easier to promote and sell board games. Unlike before, you’d need to walk through a toy shop to see board games. Now you can just search for them online. You can buy them with a click and have them delivered to your doorstep.

Not Just for the Bored

Tabletop games continue to be popular because of a number of reasons. For one thing, they’re mostly meant to be played with others on a face-to-face setting. This means board games naturally build camaraderie and friendly competition. In fact, chess is one of Armenia’s national sports , and Scrabble is a huge deal in Nigeria .

Aside from giving enjoyment, many board games can also enhance or train the brain. It’s true that some board games are simple and require pure luck or chance to win. However, many games will need some level of physical or mental skill.

This is where the “brain training” can actually happen. As you play the games over and over, your mind must learn the skills needed to win the game. Chess and Clue, for example, are great games for training logic and problem-solving. Boggle and Scrabble on the other hand can improve language and memory. And then, some board games improve critical thinking skills .

Critical thinking is the analyzation of information to make a decision or judgment. There are many skills associated with the critical thinking, but the six core ones are:

• Interpretation – This skill is the ability to recognize information and understanding them by putting them into categories and giving them meaning. An example is when you see a leaky faucet and recognize it as a problem.
• Analysis – This skill helps you examine the information or ideas and deciding which course or courses of action to make. An example of analytical thinking is deciding to fix the leaky faucet while also putting a basin to collect the dripping water while you get to work.
• Evaluation – This skill is useful when you need to weigh different options or approaches and decide on the best one. An example would be evaluating whether fixing the same leaky faucet or replacing it with a new one would be better.
• Inference – This skill is used when you draw patterns or connections from abstract elements so you can draw reasonable hypotheses or conclusions. An example would be deducing that the leak in the faucet is caused by a worn O ring after observing the source of the leak.
• Explanation – This skill involves communicating the justification behind the decision. An example would be explaining how you deduced the worn O ring because the leak stems from the handle and not the spout.
• Self-regulation – This critical thinking skill involves sensing your own lapse in judgment and taking steps to correcting yourself.

These six cores often work with each other in quick succession to display critical thinking as a whole.

Brain Games

But could board games really enhance your critical thinking skills ? Yes, they can . In fact, some institutions encourage the use and play of certain board games rather than casual handheld games.

Now, if you’d like to get in on the action, you’ll be happy to know that it’s easy to get mind-enhancing board games. Here are 5 that you should check out:

Mancala has been around for thousands of years. There are several variations of Mancala found in Africa and Middle East and Southeast Asia. Players select a hole or pit, and then place a counter (known as “seed” but commonly uses beads) taken from the selected pit in to each of the pits they will pass as they make their move around the board. Players often attempt to capture the other’s seeds. The one with the most seeds in their storage at the end of the game wins.

Mancala develops mathematical skills, as well as the ability to think and plan ahead.

Also known as Settlers of Catan, is a multiplayer board game. Designed by Klaus Teuber, Catan trains players how to strategize.

Players begin with two settlements and two roads. The goal is to build the most successful and effective civilization of all. Players will roll dice to get the resources they need to build their empire—stone, brick, lumber, and the like.

Catan develops communication, strategy, and inference. Players can trade for resources they need, which needs communication. They will also learn to strategize and plan ahead based on their assumptions on what the others players’ immediate goals are, based on their actions.

Bonus: Catan has several spin-off board games, such as A Game of Thrones and Star Trek .

3. Quoridor

Quoridor is an abstract strategy game that can be played by 2-4 people. Mirko Marchesi designed the game and Gigamic Games published it.

The object of the game is simple: players must move their token from one end of the board to the other. However, here’s where the challenge and strategy come into play. Instead of moving your piece, you can opt to place a wall to block the path of your opponent’s instead.

Quoridor is a Mensa Mind Game awardee, and with good reason. It’s simple, but its trial-and-error playthrough can lead to hundreds of unique gameplays. This board game develops adaptability, inference, logic, and the ability to plan ahead.

4. Pandemic

Pandemic is a bit different from other board games. While most of tabletop games will have players compete against each other, Pandemic will have players cooperate with each other to achieve a common goal.

Designed by Matt Leacock and published by Z-Man Games, Pandemic can be played by 2-4 people. Players will be randomly given one of these roles: medic, dispatcher, operations expert, scientist, and researcher, and will have four actions per turn. Players must all work together to stop four diseases from spreading and becoming a pandemic.

This board game develops problem-solving skills, cooperation, and teamwork. Pandemic is a great way to enhance your evaluation and explanation skills.

Pandemic has several expansions and editions, including On the Brink , which includes a fifth player.

Lastly, no list about mind-enhancing board games will be complete without chess. This classic game from India has been around for centuries, and will be probably be around for centuries more. Chess has been ported into several digital platforms, and has even been modified into fantasy and fiction (such as wizard’s chess in Harry Potter ).

Chess is played by 2 people. The goal is to capture the opponent’s king. Each player has a set of pieces, either black or white. Each set has the same number and kind of piece, including knights, pawns, bishops, rooks, and a king and queen. Each piece has a unique way of moving and capture, and players must manipulate one per turn until they can checkmate the opponent’s king.

Chess develops focus, concentration, logic, inference, and evaluation. In competitions, moves are marked for time, so players will be trained to think fast. Chess has thousands of combinations of moves and playthroughs, which will also enhance players’ creativity and adaptability.

Chess has many variants. For example, a hexagonal chess board exists. The board has three cell colors, and each player has three sets of bishops. Another variant is the 3-player chess , which also uses a hexagonal board. However, the board and set pieces have the same standard colors and numbers. The board for the 3-player chess converges in the middle.

Learning While Having Fun

Who says board games are only for children? The wide varieties of board games available will assure you that you can find one that you can enjoy at any age. The best part? You also get to give your brain a workout while having fun with family and friends.

Today’s modern technology has paved the way for solo games and casual time-wasters. Much of the beauty of playing with a real person has been lost. It’s nice to try playing board games every once in a while to bring back the dying skill of interpersonal communication and socialization. Why not give these a try?

You may also like

8 Real-World Applications of Critical Thinking in Everyday Decision Making

Critical thinking is an essential skill that plays a crucial role in decision-making and problem-solving in everyday life. It helps individuals assess […]

Boost Your Associative Thinking Skills in Problem Solving: Tips and Strategies

Associative thinking is a powerful tool that can help us solve complex problems by making connections between seemingly unrelated pieces of information. […]

Critical Thinking Skills for Managers

Most companies will have managers on their team. There are different types of managers, but they follow a general job description. In […]

Thinking Critically About Your Personal Finance in a Recession

You don’t have to be a world-renowned economist to see the financial storm clouds brewing all around us.   Inflation is through […]