A Working Memory Mechanism and Strategy Transition Dynamics When Solving SUDOKU Puzzle
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1
Kyushu Institute of Technology, Graduate School of Life Science and Systems Engineering, Japan
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2
RIKEN BSI, Japan
Sudoku is a popular puzzle to fill the right number in empty boxes of the nine-by-nine Sudoku grid with deductive (or sometime speculative) inference by cues of given numbers in some boxes, which restrict the degree of freedom in the final set and provide an unique solution for being a puzzle. Interestingly, the same puzzle can be formed as the four-by-four and sixteen-by-sixteen, yet people get excited at solving the nine-by-nine version. A plausible reason why is that the former one is too easy and the latter one is too difficult for humans to solve. The solving style varies from individual to individual and there are different preferences in transition between primitive solution strategies. According to Delahaye [1], professional solvers frequently use simple strategies called “only cell” (finding a cell which has no option except putting a specific number) and “forced cell” (a method of elimination), and systematically switch them to other complicated strategies such as simplifying the range of possibilities and try-and-error (including a hypothetical reasoning) at the moment to face a situation that only/forced cell strategies do not work properly as they felt.
In our experimental observation of amateurs with different experiences which may corresponds to levels of skills, subjects exhibit individual preferences on a tendency of transition between primitive strategies. Post-experimental interviews revealed that some person has a fixation for a specific number because of the one’s most favorite number and the other changed the fixation in order. It suggests that try-and-error in Delahaye’s sense is not equivalent to a random process with the probability density distribution defined by efficiency, or a confidence rating. Instead of the confidence, they rely on adherence. We discussed a possible neural dynamics for solving the puzzle [2], as a form of working memory mechanism with a spontaneous of working table related to the prefrontal-parietal network and an emotional judge provided by the hippocampal-amygdala-prefrontal network [4]. The present result partly supports our hypothesis.
Acknowledgements
This work is partly supported by Neuroinformatics Japan Center (NIJC), RIKEN BSI.
References
[1] Delahaye, J-P. (2006) The Science behind Sudoku. Scientific American 294, pp. 80-87.
[2] Wagatsuma, H. (2013) SUDOKU Puzzle: The Neurodynamics of Intelligence to Choose the Right Solution from Many Possible Options in a Hypothetical Reasoning. Advances in Cognitive Neurodynamics (III), pp 363-368.
[3] Bor, D., Seth, A.K. (2012) Consciousness and the Prefrontal Parietal Network: Insights from Attention, Working Memory, and Chunking. Frontiers in Psychology. 3, article 63.
[4] Wagatsuma, H., Yamaguchi, Y. (2008) Context-Dependent Adaptive Behavior Generated in the Theta Phase Coding Network. Neural Information Processing, Lecture Notes in Computer Science 4985, pp 177-184.
Keywords:
working memory,
Logical Reasoning,
emotional bias,
hypothetical thought,
Prefrontal Cortex,
parietal cortex,
Hippocampus,
Amygdala,
adherence
Conference:
Neuroinformatics 2014, Leiden, Netherlands, 25 Aug - 27 Aug, 2014.
Presentation Type:
Poster, not to be considered for oral presentation
Topic:
Computational neuroscience
Citation:
Akaike
S and
Wagatsuma
H
(2014). A Working Memory Mechanism and Strategy Transition Dynamics When Solving SUDOKU Puzzle.
Front. Neuroinform.
Conference Abstract:
Neuroinformatics 2014.
doi: 10.3389/conf.fninf.2014.18.00006
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Received:
04 Apr 2014;
Published Online:
04 Jun 2014.
*
Correspondence:
Prof. Hiroaki Wagatsuma, Kyushu Institute of Technology, Graduate School of Life Science and Systems Engineering, Kitakyushu, Fukuoka, 808-0196, Japan, waga@brain.kyutech.ac.jp