Kathryn Friedlander

University of Buckingham, Psychology, Faculty Member

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Author of 'The Psychology of Creative Performance and Expertise', T&F, 2024. https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/mono/10.4324/9781003259428/psychology-creative-performance-expertise-kathryn-friedlander

Lecturer in Psychology @UniOfBuckingham. Module leader: Creative Performance and Expertise; Educational Psychology. My blog on all things to do with Performance, Creativity and Expertise is at https://createpsy.com/.

Research interests: Cryptic crosswords, puzzles and mind games, chess, Scrabble, sudoku; cognitive/performance psychology, music and theatrical performance, creative writing, humour; expertise development; semantic networks, RAT/CRA puzzles, anagrams; insight puzzles, creativity, Aha! moments, lateral thinking, miserly thinking; visual imagery and imagination; sensitivity and artistic ability; medical education; educational psychology, giftedness and talent.

I maintain my full, up to date research profile on ResearchGate.net: please do visit my page.

Education: Oxford University (BA, MA, DPhil) - Literae Humaniores/Roman Comedy; MSc Psychology (Oxford Brookes); PGDipl, Giftedness and Talent (Worcester). MBPsS.

Personal interests: food, veggie plot, cryptic crosswords and Burmese cats. @kj_friedlander
Address: Oxford

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Sensitive creators at work

Occupational psychology outlook, May 7, 2024

Expertise in cryptic crossword performance: An exploratory survey

ABSTRACT This paper investigates the link between practice and level of expertise in cryptic cros... more ABSTRACT This paper investigates the link between practice and level of expertise in cryptic crossword solvers. A survey was conducted of 241 expert solvers, which established that, even among crossword experts, the range and frequency of cryptics solved and the time spent upon this varied greatly. The link between practice and level of expertise was therefore not straightforward, but seemed to be connected to the primary focus of the solver—whether they aimed to &quot;speed-solve&quot; or solve &quot;advanced cryptics&quot; of exceptional difficulty. A brief review of motivational drivers for solvers of cryptics is also included. Puzzles of all standards and for all ages are routinely available in newspapers and magazines, and crazes for particular types of brainteasers—such as Su- doku—regularly sweep the world. One particularly long-lived puzzle type is the crossword, which exists in two basic forms: cryptic and non-cryptic. In the non-cryptic form, a clue word or phrase prompts the solver to discover a synonym word which will fit into the grid and intersect with cross-checking letters. This type of crossword is found throughout the world and is the main (virtually the only) type of crossword to be found in the USA. The focus of this study, however, is the &quot;cryptic&quot; crossword, which may be found in broadsheet newspapers and quality magazines throughout the UK and Commonwealth. In these puzzles, the surface reading of the clue is phrased to be deliberately misleading. The solver learns to ignore this read- ing, and to identify and crack a grammatical set of coded instructions which, if executed precisely, will lead to the correct (and only) answer. Although cryptic crosswords are not audience-oriented, many solvers strive for self-improvement and recognition within the crossword commu-

Editorial: Novel Approaches for Studying Creativity in Problem-Solving and Artistic Performance

Frontiers in Psychology, Sep 18, 2019

Kathryn Friedlander

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