Snug Fit
Every piece in the tray has been turned. Tap the one that fills the gap in the wall.
How to play
- Look at the shape of the gap in the wall.
- Every piece in the tray has been turned. Pieces turn but never flip over, so the gap’s mirror image never fits.
- Picture each piece turning, then tap the one that fills the gap. It turns and drops into place.
- Tap one that doesn’t fit and it shows you where it sticks out, then goes back — pick again until you find the one that fits.
- A run of right answers brings bigger pieces at odder angles, and a miss makes the next wall easier. Twelve walls make a session, and every session starts from the same easy walls.
What it trains
- Turning a shape in your head until it lines up with another
- Telling a shape from its mirror image — the one difference no turn can undo
- Walls that get harder or easier with your answers, so each session sits at the edge of what you can picture
Snug Fit is a mental rotation game. A stone wall has a gap in it, and the tray below holds a few pieces, all of them turned. Only one of them fills the gap — the others are the same shape flipped over, or near-copies with a block or two in other places — and there is no button to turn them: picture each one turning, then tap. The right piece spins round and drops into the wall. Get it right and the next pieces are bigger and set at odder angles; miss and the next wall is easier. Twelve walls make a session of a few minutes.
The science behind it
Peer-reviewed studies this exercise draws on.
- The malleability of spatial skills: A meta-analysis of training studies Uttal, Meadow, Tipton, Hand, Alden, Warren & Newcombe (2013). Psychological Bulletin, 139(2), 352–402.
- Mental rotation of three-dimensional objects Shepard & Metzler (1971). Science, 171(3972), 701–703.
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