Abstract

The purpose of this study was to determine the extent of the influence of Sudoku induced cognitive skills on the decision making of small scale businesses in Uyo Local Government Area of Akwa Ibom State. To achieve this, two specific objectives were formulated, two research questions were posed, and two null hypotheses were tested at the 0.05 level of significance. The study adopted an ex post facto survey research design. The population comprised all 7,373 registered small scale businesses in Uyo Metropolis. A sample of 583 small scale business owners was selected for the study. Data were collected using a researcher developed questionnaire titled Sudoku Induced Cognitive Skills and Decision Making Questionnaire (SICSDMQ). The reliability and internal consistency of the instrument were determined using the Kuder–Richardson 21 (KR-21) reliability method, yielding a high reliability coefficient of 0.88. Mean and standard deviation were used to answer the research questions, while the t test was used to test the null hypotheses. The findings revealed a significant influence of working memory on the decision making of small scale business owners in Uyo Local Government Area of Akwa Ibom State. The study recommended, among other things, that owners of small scale businesses should engage in Sudoku based cognitive training to enhance their decision making and improve business performance.

Keywords: Sudoku, Cognitive Skills, Decision Making, Small Scale Businesses

https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.21215833

Authors:

Abasienie Sampson Bassey(PhD)
Department of Business
Education
University of Uyo
08162428134

Copyright © [2026] The Author(s). Published by the Journal of People and Worldviews (JPW). This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) Licence, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author(s) and source are properly credited.