Brainwaves: The Wise Whale
Brainwaves: The Wise Whale Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Game Idea
For 1 – 4 players, ages 8 and up.
Players memorise the sea creatures and colours in the display before the cards are turned face down. Round by round, a card is revealed from the face-down draw stack. The player whose turn it is tries to find a card in the display with a matching sea creature or a matching colour. A new card then takes its place in the display, so the display changes with every turn. This is meant to stimulate the brain cells in the frontal and parietal lobes that are important for mental abilities (see also the information at the end of the rules).
Components
- 49 sea creatures, 7 motifs in 7 colours (each sea creature in each colour exactly once)
- 1 notepad for recording points
- 1 special die for the variant
- 1 rulebook with information on the memory study
The sea creatures and colours in the game are: coral (yellow), dolphin (orange), pufferfish (red), turtle (purple), seahorse (blue), starfish (turquoise) and whale (green).
Setup
- The special die is not needed in the basic game; it is only used in the variant (see the end of the rules).
- The notepad is only needed at the end of the game, to record points.
- Depending on the desired difficulty level, a different number of cards is used:
Difficulty Levels
Difficulty level 1 – Beginners (Neulinge)
- Play with 5 motifs in 5 colours (so 25 cards).
- 2 motifs are removed completely, e.g. all corals and all starfish.
- In addition, 2 colours are removed from each of the remaining motifs, e.g. all green and all red cards.
Difficulty level 2 – Advanced (Fortgeschrittene)
- Play with 6 motifs in 6 colours (so 36 cards).
- 1 motif is removed completely, e.g. all corals.
- In addition, 1 colour is removed from each of the remaining motifs, e.g. all green cards.
Difficulty level 3 – Experienced (Erfahrene)
- Play with 7 motifs in 7 colours (so all 49 cards).
The cards are shuffled and placed as a face-down stack on the table. From this stack, 9 cards are drawn and first laid out face up in a display of 3 rows and 3 columns (a 3x3 grid).
Gameplay
The players memorise the cards of the 3x3 grid – sea creatures and colours – as well as possible.
After about 2 minutes, the cards are turned face down, so that only their backs are visible. The face-down display then consists of 3 x 3 cards.
The youngest player begins; play then continues clockwise.
When it is your turn, you have up to three attempts to find matching cards. Cards match if they show either the same sea creature or the same colour.
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First, you turn over the top card of the draw stack.
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Then you turn over a card of your choice in the 3x3 grid.
✓ Does the card from the grid match the card from the draw stack? If the two cards show either the same sea creature or the same colour, they match. You take the card from the grid and place it face down in front of you. At the end of the game it is worth one point.
✗ Does the card from the grid not match the card from the draw stack? If the two cards show neither the same sea creature nor the same colour, you put the card from the grid under the face-down draw stack.
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The card from the draw stack goes face down into the vacant place in the 3x3 grid – whether it matched or not. Be sure to memorise this new card in the grid well!
(Illustration captions, as printed: "Match – sea creature", "Match – background colour", "No match".)
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If you have found a matching card, you take another turn: you turn over another card from the draw stack and look for the matching card in the grid, and so on.
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As soon as you have turned over a card that does not match, or at the latest after your 3rd turn, the next player takes their turn.
Tip: So that a player cannot win more than three cards in one turn, you should first lay won cards down individually in front of you and only place them on your point pile at the end of the turn.
End of the Game
The game ends as soon as the draw stack is empty and, with this last card, one more attempt has been made to reveal a matching card in the grid.
The players count their won cards and record their points on the notepad.
As many games are played as there are players, so that each player starts once – beginning with the youngest player, then the player to the left of them. Once everyone has been the starting player and the points from all games have been recorded, the points are added up for each player. The player with the most points wins.
Variant with the Die
This variant requires the special die.
The players choose the difficulty level and shuffle the corresponding card stack. The game is played as described in the basic game, with the following change to the rules:
Whenever a card is turned over from the draw stack, the die must be rolled. The die determines whether the player must find, in the 3x3 grid, a card with the matching sea creature or a card with the matching colour. You therefore no longer have the choice between sea creature and colour – you must turn over exactly what the die specifies:
- Whale symbol: The player must find in the 3x3 grid the sea creature that matches the revealed card.
- Colour-circle symbol: The player must find in the 3x3 grid the colour that matches the revealed card.
It can happen that a particular sea creature or a particular colour is not in the 3x3 grid at all. That is bad luck. A card must nevertheless be turned over in the grid and exchanged as usual.
Solo Variant for 1 Player
The player chooses the difficulty level and shuffles the corresponding card stack. The game is played as described in the basic game above, with the following change to the rules:
Whenever the player turns over a card in the display that does not match, it goes onto a separate pile at the side, the so-called "error pile" (Fehlerstapel).
When the draw stack is empty and the corresponding turn has ended, the game ends. The player counts their won cards and likewise the cards of the "error pile". The player subtracts the cards of the "error pile" from the won cards and records the result on the notepad.
After further solo games, the player can compare the results and see whether they have tended to improve.
Scientific Study
The games of the BRAIN TO GO series are small and especially fine games. But why?
Scientists at the University of Ulm (working group Clinical and Biological Psychology) examined the BRAIN TO GO series in a study. The question was which brain functions the game series makes use of. The demands on working memory (simultaneously storing and processing new information), on long-term or episodic memory (as the lasting storage system of the brain) and on fluid intelligence (logical thinking) were examined.
- Fluid intelligence: logical thinking
- Working memory: simultaneously storing and processing new information
- Episodic memory: a lasting storage system
Brain regions named in the study:
- Prefrontal cortex: part of the cerebral cortex of the frontal lobe
- Posterior parietal cortex: part of the cerebral cortex of the parietal lobe
- Medial temporal lobe: part of the temporal lobe including the hippocampus
The games examined were:
- SCHWEIN ODER NICHT SCHWEIN
- GANS SCHÖN VERDÄCHTIG
- DER LILA WAL
Result of the scientific study: the BRAIN TO GO series makes use of all three examined brain functions (fluid intelligence, working memory, long-term memory) and is therefore, from the scientists' point of view, suitable for training mental abilities.
Other well-known memory games are generally "static" – the motifs often do not change position. The BRAIN TO GO series is quite different. Here the memory contents must be constantly updated, because the card motifs in the hand or in the display change with every turn. As a result, the player must delete motifs already memorised for a particular position from their mental workspace and memorise new motifs for that position again and again.
The game series makes use of several important brain functions. It is a good and simple "brain jogging" that is played quickly. And the games are great fun – alone, and even more so in company with others. Good for young and old.
Conclusion: simply play more often – and train your memory along the way!
What is ...?
Fluid intelligence? Fluid intelligence or fluid thinking is the ability to think logically. This ability is needed, for example, to solve new problems.
Working memory? Working memory enables us to store information temporarily and manipulate it at the same time. Working memory is needed, for example, to remember the beginning of a sentence at its end, so that one can understand the sentence's content.
Episodic or long-term memory? Episodic memory is the part of long-term memory that stores memories over the long term. Episodic memory is needed, for example, to remember a conversation that took place several hours ago.