Abstract
This paper studies crossword puzzles as a vehicle for analyzing information in a rigorous yet meaningful fashion. The paper asks, how does information operate in the context of crossword puzzles? A model is proposed that quantifies the difficulty of a puzzle P with respect to its clues. Given a clue-answer pair (c,a), we model the difficulty of guessing a based on c using the conditional probability Pr(a | c); easier mappings should enjoy a higher conditional probability. The model is tested on a corpus of puzzles taken from The New York Times. Additionally, we discuss how the notion of information implicit in our model relates to more easily quantifiable types of information that figure into crossword puzzles.
| Original language | English (US) |
|---|---|
| Title of host publication | ASIST 2007 Proceedings of the 70th ASIS and T Annual Meeting - Joining Research and Practice |
| Subtitle of host publication | Social Computing and Information Science |
| Publisher | John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. |
| Volume | 44 |
| ISBN (Print) | 0877155399, 9780877155393 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - 2007 |
| Externally published | Yes |
| Event | 3rd Electronic edition of the Annual Meeting of the American Society for Information Science and Technology - Milwaukee, WI, United States Duration: Oct 19 2007 → Oct 24 2007 |
Other
| Other | 3rd Electronic edition of the Annual Meeting of the American Society for Information Science and Technology |
|---|---|
| Country/Territory | United States |
| City | Milwaukee, WI |
| Period | 10/19/07 → 10/24/07 |
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Information Systems
- Library and Information Sciences