Let me at it! or No way! I can't stand them! That's the general reaction you'll get from people when you ask them about jigsaw puzzles.

Jigsaw puzzles originally were made by painting a picture on a flat piece of wood and then cutting it into small, oddly shaped and interlocking pieces with a jigsaw. This is how they got their name.

John Spilsbury, a London mapmaker and engraver, is credited with producing the wooden puzzles for sale commercially about 1760. Modern commercial puzzles are made primarily out of cardboard.

The typical image for a jigsaw puzzle is scenes from nature, locations and animals but any image can be used even personal photographs. Completed puzzles can also be attached to a backing with adhesive to be used as artwork.

During recent years a range of jigsaw puzzle accessories including boards, cases, frames and roll-up mats has become available that are designed to assist jigsaw puzzle enthusiasts.

• Spread puzzle pieces out, face up, on a large table or puzzle mat.
• Separate the edge and corner pieces and put the border together using the box lid picture as a guideline.
• Divide the remaining "inner" pieces and organize in groups with similar colors or letters. Any words or graphics will be easier to put together.
• Start placing similar pieces together until they fit and begin to form clusters--small parts of the larger picture.
• Connect clusters together once you can and keep looking at the box lid picture to find the locations of the groups of pieces.
• Finish the puzzle, connecting all pieces together, and decide whether to glue the puzzle or take it apart and start another.

A recent study at the University of Bath, England, has shown that there are two different personality approaches to putting a jigsaw puzzle together. The researchers said examining how people tackle jigsaws, alone and with others, can give clues as to how people behave in work and family situations.

People were asked to complete a 120-piece jigsaw, either alone or in a group and videoed as their behaviour was observed.

Players were seen refusing to allow a fellow player to touch their part of the jigsaw and squabbling over access to pieces. People were also seen shielding parts of the completed puzzle, hoarding piles of pieces and hiding the picture on the lid from others.

The researchers found that 'border obsessives' focus exclusively on sorting through the entire stock of pieces for the sole purpose of completing the border before concentrating on the rest of the puzzle.

Border obsessives tended to dominate in groups by controlling decisions and behaviour.

'Opportunists', in contrast, are much more creative in their approach, sorting piles on more complex criteria and completing the puzzle using a range of different methods, such as from the top of the picture down to the bottom, or by concentrating on a major component of the picture depending on the pieces they pick up.

Opportunists fared better when completing a jigsaw alone

Dr Hilary Johnson from the Human and Computer Interaction Laboratory at the University. said: "We are most interested in how both the activity and people's behaviour changes when they collaborate on an activity.

"A person's jigsaw strategy closely reflects both their personality and level of skill, and although they may not be as extreme as opportunist or border obsessive, they frequently share behaviour with one of these two extremes."

She added: "The strategies people employ to construct a jigsaw on their own can alter dramatically depending on their leadership skills and force of personality when they have to work with someone else.

"This is especially so if the person they are working with has a completely contrasting style."

I FINISHED THAT DARN PUZZLE ALL BY MYSELF!

I IS SO PROUD OF ME!!