Memory and Imagination

Description and rules of the game

"Memory and Imagination" is a board game with cards. Its purpose is to develop the memory and imagination of the players. In particular it stimulates and develops the right brain.

The main idea is to use the associative capabilities of the players (i.e. the ability to imagine some situation linking two items with no natural relationship, for instance "Singer" and "Hot air balloon") to sustain memory.

In this version for mobiles and tablets, it is played between two players. And thanks to the magic of virtual worlds, one can see through the cards the names of the cells.

Rules

At the beginning of the game, 15 pairs of cards are shuffled, and put face down on the 30 cells of the board. The objective for each player is to uncover and remove the maximum number of pairs. The board is there to help sustain memory via associations between the pictures in the cells, and pictures on the cards on the cells.

Players play in turn. The first player (A) selects and turns up two cards. If its a pair, A scores a point and plays again. Otherwise, after everybody has seen the cards and the cells they come from, they are put back, face hidden, on their cells. And its the second player's turn.

The second player (B) turns up two cards. If, after B has turned up the first card, he or she sees that it corresponds to another one already seen, and B remembers where it was, he or she will be able to win a pair. If what B turns up is not a pair, the cards are put back face hidden, and it's A's turn again.

The game ends when no card is left. The winner is the player who has won the largest number of pairs.

What makes the game new and interesting

"Memory and Imagination" stimulates and develops the right brain - something few games do, as they are more often related to left brain faculties.

With the help of associations that players will have built in their heads between the cards and cells already seen, they will be able to find pairs more easily than without the help of a board. Thus, if a few turns previousy, the players saw the "Fireman" at the "Dance", the current player, if he or she turns up the other "Fireman" card, may remember that he or she imagined a fireman standing by the entrance of a ball room for security.

Experience shows that "Memory and Imagination" leads to livelier games than standard Memory, where only spatial memory is solicited. It requires making links between things unusually linked, for instance: "Attic" and "Fairy", or "Swimming pool" and "Clairvoyant", etc. The players can have fun comparing the links they created in their minds.

Experience shows too that, whereas kids are usually better than adults at the classical memory game, with "Memory and Imagination" kids and adults are again on a par.