[Wyman]

That's a great point, and I've often wondered about it. To a point, it's probably quite a bit of each, ie. they were good, so they enjoyed the puzzles more, so they did the puzzles more, so they got better at them, etc.

To some extent, I think people are born with certain analytical abilities. But, I also think that the abilities you have (everybody has some level...) can be honed in childhood. I think that forcing kids to think critically, apply logic, exclude possibilites, and draw conclusions (both negative and positive) is just as important as (and will likely serve them better in life than) learning about the Civil War, spelling, and the history of the universe. (Obviously, having some basic knowledge about all these things is a crucial part of being an educated adult in the US today, so I'm not saying we shouldn't be teaching kids about Gettysburg or to, two, and too.)