IQ Games:
Making The Smart Play

Time to get game? This is the place.

But there's a question to consider. Can these games actually sharpen your IQ?

There are varying opinions. Remember, IQ tests are designed to assess your general ability to solve problems and understand concepts.

Your ability to store and fetch information, your capabilities for reasoning, solving problems and understanding relationships, are all considered in your IQ test score.

So are you stuck with your IQ for the rest of your life?

Well, it's tricky. You can argue that learning new and more information doesn't equate into higher IQ. That's because IQ tests generally score your ability to understand ideas, rather than simply the quantity of knowledge you've acquired.

While scientists don't appear to fully understand how learning effects cognitive abilities, there does seem to be some consensus that learning can exercise the mind - similar to the way physical exercise can tone and even improve body muscle. It remains, though, a murky area that's not perfectly charted.

If you buy into the idea that intellectually stimulating exercises such as games, IQ puzzles and brain teasers can actually sharpen cognitive abilities, aside from just being fun, then your efforts may be rewarded with a higher score.

One of the granddaddies of IQ games that can be accessed free online is puzz.com. There are anagrams, analogies, series puzzles, logical and lateral thinking teasers, riddles, verbal items, math problems and more.

We tried one of the verbal items and found the set-up pretty easy to navigate. One of games provides verbal items in 20 problems. You solve the problem by underlining the two words that are most similar in meaning. If you want, you can use a scratch pad instead of a word processing program. You get the answer by clicking on the page.

There are IQ puzzles elsewhere, such as on the Brainfood site. There are a wide range of brain teasers designed to measure your abilities. We gave them a try and, well, it wasn't as easy as we thought.

You can file this quick iq game in the "just pure fun" category. The results aren't scientific, but this engaging little puzzle will get you thinking while testing your logic and problem solving skills.

Tend to the more literary? This fun online game promises to test your punctuation IQ. Based on the great book Eats, Shoots and Leaves by Lynne Truss, this little test measures how effectively you can master the use of the common comma. Great for the literary genius in your life!

There are just 10 questions, so you aren't looking at a big time investment here. The bragging rights are nice, too.

Maybe playing IQ games and IQ puzzles will pay off in the long run, but regardless -- when it comes to intelligence, it really is a use it or lose it reality.

To learn more about what brain teasers can offer you in terms of intellectual stimulation, you need look no further.