I was thinking about which abilities you need to be good at Scrabble. Presumably you would need a rather good vocabulary and a good ability to re-arrange letters in your mind. Also you should need some strategical skills and logical thinking. But if you possess these qualities, will you immediately be good at Scrabble?
I found two articles* describing scrabble experts. A study by Halpern & Wai list these abilities as necessary for successful play:
- verbal ability in the form of of word fluency, because the game requires the rapid retrieval of words from memory
- visuospatial ability, because the spatial layout of words and letters on particular squares (…) determines the point value of a play, and
- numerical ability, because players need to calculate probabilities and rapidly use the numerical properties associated with different combinations of words located in different places on the board
Still, what seems to make the greatest difference is the amount of time spent practicing and playing: “expertise develops with practice” (Halpern & Wai). With scrabble expertise comes other advantages: high proficiency in word definition, faster access to word identification, and enhanced visuospatial processing.
So I guess it’s just to keep on playing!
(I also learned that an expert scrabble player spends an average of four an a half hours per week memorizing words from the official dictionary!)
* Halpern & Wai and Tuffiash et al.
