Attention - Ancient Writing

How To Play

Compare ancient writing characters (Egyptian, Maya ...) or other writing systems (Japanese, Thai...) and pick out the different characters. 
In this activity, it is critical for you to pay close attention to the characters. You must distinguish a set of characters and memorize them. From a second set of characters, your task will be to figure out which characters were not present in the first set.

Cognitive Function Exercised

In addition to your visual memory, this exercise primarily stimulates your attention, which is the cognitive process of selectively concentrating on one aspect of the environment while ignoring other things. Further, this task will stimulate your concentration and your visual analysis of the shapes of characters. 
Visual scanning skills and your ability to attend to detail will be put to the test.

Benefits to Daily Life

Whenever we are presented with a new set of symbols, such as when learning to navigate traffic signs for the first time or when learning a language with a unique alphabet, we use the skills from this activity. As humans, we are unique in how we use symbols and characters to represent our world. It is part of our innate ability to learn and create languages.

In terms of attention, consider everything that is stimulating your senses as you read this sentence. Perhaps there are background noises or a conversation nearby, the aromas of food or pangs of hunger, distractions in your peripheral vision, thoughts of things to do, recent conversations or events still fresh in your mind. Paying attention is resisting distractions.