A study of how folks put together jigsaw puzzles (in an effort to deduce patterns of collaboration) is all the more interesting for my own New Years Eve experience in doing so:
People were asked to complete a 120-piece jigsaw, either alone or in a group and videoed as they did so.
Extreme behaviour was observed. Players were seen refusing to allow a fellow player to touch their part of the jigsaw and squabbling over access to pieces. People were also seen shielding parts of the completed puzzle, hoarding piles of pieces and hiding the picture on the lid from others.
The researchers found that ‘border obsessives’ focus exclusively on sorting through the entire stock of pieces for the sole purpose of completing the border before concentrating on the rest of the puzzle.
‘Opportunists’, in contrast, are much more creative in their approach, sorting piles on more complex criteria and completing the puzzle using a range of different methods, such as from the top of the picture down to the bottom, or by concentrating on a major component of the picture depending on the pieces they pick up.
Opportunists fared better when completing a jigsaw alone. Border obsessives tended to dominate in groups by controlling decisions and behaviour.
I’m definitely a Border Obsessive, though once the border is complete, it’s time to focus on “hey, who has the other bits of fuscia?” things.
Though, in the teddy bear puzzle we worked on for some hours, I ended up having more luck matching color tone of near-black background pieces than in matching the dizzying array of tan/ecru/beige/sand/light brown teddy bear bits of the rest of the puzzle.
But I don’t think I recall anyone at the table hiding pieces away. Obviously we weren’t quite compulsive enough …
(via Kottke)
I’ do focus first on the border, but will pause to put together non-border pieces if I spot them.
But why are people competitive? I much prefer cooperative puzzle-solving!
Border, then free for all looking for patterns. Then again my family bought insane puzzles like repaeting pattern things so there was no way to do it in a “major component” type of way.
I am, to be honest, not that keen on puzzles, especially ones that go out of their way to be difficult (“A 1000×1000 black and white grid! 5000 pieces! Double-sided!”). If a puzzle can’t be tackled successfully over the course of three or four hours by a couple of people, then it’s too irksome for me.