Intellectual games concept review in the XIX - XXI century (Google book Ngram Corpus scientific materials base)

In the context of the development of information technology in the world, modern scientists have noted in children, youth and adults the processes of creative and intellectual degradation, the growth of functional illiteracy. In the 20th century, the value of general intelligence for each new generation was one more statistical "norm" than the previous one. Scientists have discovered that the activity of a man of the 21st century in his free time becomes more significant for the development of his intellect and creativity (gaining a state of "flow") than activity during working hours. The intellectual load during leisure time allows a person to maintain a high level of mental activity until the end of his life, to prevent brain degradation. In the scientific community, from the mid-19th century, the verbal definition of the term "intellectual games" is enclosed in different types of games. Drawing analogies between the concepts of "Quiz" and "intellectual games", the authors of the article determine that they are the product of two opposites: mass, entertainment culture and intellectual culture, which is characteristic of a rational person, capable of endless development. The authors described a modern tool for working in the database of scientific materials Google Book Ngram Corpus. This database contains also materials concerning architecture, construction, machine-buliding fields of research. With its help, connotations of intellectual games in the history of their development were considered. © The Authors, published by EDP Sciences, 2020.