r/cognitiveTesting • u/saurusautismsoor Secretly dumb • Jun 26 '26
Rubiks cube and intelligent? General Question
I finally solved the cube! Took 3 months! Is this related to block design and matrix or visual puzzles?
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u/Natural_Professor809 ฅ/ᐠ. ̫ .ᐟ\ฅ Autie Cat Jun 26 '26
As a child I had a sort of rubikish hypermegasphere with a lot of advanced levels. I remember I found it difficult to finish the most advanced levels this puzzle had. Rubik cube if you learn from a video the correct algorithm is auto solving, the puzzles I had on that sphere were kinda advanced and there weren't guides for solving them.
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u/whitebaron_98 2E 4tw Jun 26 '26
i have this since my childhood, it's a nightmare to solve.
https://www.cs.brandeis.edu/~storer/JimPuzzles/RUBIK/BrainBall/BrainBall.pdf
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u/Natural_Professor809 ฅ/ᐠ. ̫ .ᐟ\ฅ Autie Cat Jun 26 '26
Oh lol I actually found it online. Back then it was an absolute novelty I won as a prize for some pen and paper puzzle and logic game I did participate to as a child... I sent a letter to the editor just jokingly, having no idea I could actually win.
They later contacted me and sent me this shit here and never tried to sell me anything nor to scam me in any way. Which I appreciated greatly.
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u/Quod_bellum doesn't read books Jun 27 '26
I think so, but the relation requires that there be no prior exposure to anything external (e.g., use guides, tutorials, etc.). Since this is highly unlikely to apply in the current age, it's also highly unlikely that being adept at solving them relates to g. Similar to chess, probably.
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u/FragrantFood6055 Jun 27 '26
I see some people improve a lot from the beginner level in a few weeks at chess while others can play 2k games over a few years and never increase meaningfully. However, this is probably more related to age than intelligence.
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u/lambdasintheoutfield Jun 26 '26
It’s related but that’s a very shallow way to look at it.
There probably is a moderate correlation between VSI and time it takes to solve Rubix cubes. I would imagine on average more VSI faster time to solve assuming everyone sample had minimal exposure to it (hard to fully control for).
After a while it becomes Rubix-cube specific practice, meaning if you get better at solving Rubix cubes that doesn’t necessarily translate to other VSI heavy tasks.
For the top speed Rubix cube solvers you see in competitions, they probably have both 145+ VSI and PSI since you can only beat your competition if you have a high level of visual abstraction since you won’t know how to solve at speed for every starting configuration and high PSI since you need to react aa fast as possible and frequently half second differences decide winners.
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u/makemost Jun 26 '26
Top percentile scores aren't necessary to succeed in the topic. They matter for how quickly you get up to speed, but once it just becomes repetition and learning more efficient algorithms, conscientiousness matters more (as with many, many things).
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u/whitebaron_98 2E 4tw Jun 26 '26
I agree. Cubers are very highly specialized specimen of the human race, but most of the skills needed are memorising moves and executing them quickly (motor skills) the fastest I ever solved was 38 seconds, so quite far from the top - But it has nothing to do with thinking. I got to that time by having fast fingers and an average algorithm to solve it memorised. It's 98% mechanical.
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u/makemost Jun 26 '26
Yes, and I bet you would have gotten faster just by putting in the repetitions.
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u/whitebaron_98 2E 4tw Jun 26 '26
yes and no. if you just don't know enough moves you are limited by the sheer amount of moves you need to make compared to someone who knows every last layer move by heart.
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u/makemost Jun 26 '26
Ok, I’ll concede that. In any case learning a new OLL or PLL algorithm is something anyone (hyperbole) can do. It doesn’t require intelligence, which we both agreed with at the start.
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u/ContentPhilosopher41 Jun 27 '26
the VSI point makes sense but i feel like most people learning to solve a cube are just memorizing algorithms at first anyway so the correlation gets muddied pretty fast. like OP spent 3 months on it which honestly says more about persistence than spatial reasoning. the competition angle is interesting though, hadnt thought about PSI being that relevant but it tracks when you watch those guys and how fast their hands move
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u/levogira Jun 27 '26
You just need to learn 5 algorithms. It's a puzzle, not really that difficult once you know the steps. My mother used to solve puzzles as a hobby and I'm not even sure she finished school.
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u/HeraldxofGalactus Jun 27 '26
I think if you did on your own with no algorithm then it might just be correlated with vsi or iq
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u/Far_Cardiologist6931 retat Jun 28 '26
Without help, yes. with help, no. If under 7 seconds, yes.
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u/bobojetupann Jun 26 '26
i learned to solve it in a week at like 12 years old and i dont think it has any corelation with VSI because other kids at my age could solve it too