# What kind of cuber are you? (survey)



## meichenl (May 27, 2011)

I've recently been reading the literature on expert performance to prepare a report for a class. Researchers support a few different ideas about why some people achieve better performances than others in any given discipline. Specifically, there is debate over the importance of natural genetic ability, practice time and type, and environment in determining how accomplished you become.

Speed-solving Rubik's cubes is an ideal place to study expert performance because it is easy to quantify how fast you are, and due to the WCA database, we can see not only how fast people are, but their entire history of improvement.

I'm interested looking at the relationships between practice habits, attitudes towards cubing, and cubing speed. If you have ten minutes (or fifteen you if answer questions more carefully), please respond to my survey on SurveyMonkey.

https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/PQZKHKN

Once the results are in, I'll report back with whatever I find. 

This is an informal survey; I don't plan on using this for an academic publication, so self-reported data will be fine.

Also, I'd be happy to hear your opinions on the relative importance of talent, practice, and environment in cubing. If you have any questions about the survey or questions that I can answer based on what I've read about expertise, I'll do my best.

If you're on any cubing mailing lists, feel free to forward this link.

Thank you,
Mark


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## Zane_C (May 27, 2011)

Hmm, I don't even no if I did it right. I clicked on "done" and then another question page came up. So I just exited the survey by clicking in the top right corner.


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## MrIndianTeen (May 27, 2011)

Zane_C said:


> Hmm, I don't even no if I did it right. I clicked on "done" and then another question page came up. So I just exited the survey by clicking in the top right corner.


 
There are two of those pages to answer.


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## meichenl (May 27, 2011)

The survey has three pages. The first page asks about how much you practice. The second asks about how you practice. The third asks about your attitude towards cubing. When you finish the complete survey, a "thank you" message should pop up.


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## That70sShowDude (May 27, 2011)

Just completed the survey. 

I want to share my one answer. Question was similar to:

What is the most important factor to get good times?
young fingers


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## JonnyWhoopes (May 27, 2011)

Completed. Very interesting survey.


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## Olji (May 27, 2011)

Done it now, this survey acually made me have some insight on my good points o-o


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## d4m4s74 (May 27, 2011)

I'm doing this right now.


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## DavidWoner (May 27, 2011)

I was expecting more questions on environment, ie direct vs indirect lighting, temperature, brightness, time of day, natural vs artificial light, body position in relation to solving surface, where you hold the cube when you solve, etc.

Also why do you need our names?


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## DavidWoner (May 27, 2011)

I was expecting more questions on environment, ie direct vs indirect lighting, temperature, brightness, time of day, natural vs artificial light, body position in relation to solving surface, where you hold the cube when you solve, etc.

Also why do you need our names?


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## ianography (May 27, 2011)

DavidWoner said:


> Also why do you need our names?


 
I would think to make sure that it was a real person or that it wasn't the same person over and over again.


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## uberCuber (May 27, 2011)

Very interesting survey, just finished.


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## meichenl (May 27, 2011)

DavidWoner said:


> I was expecting more questions on environment, ie direct vs indirect lighting, temperature, brightness, time of day, natural vs artificial light, body position in relation to solving surface, where you hold the cube when you solve, etc.
> 
> Also why do you need our names?



The names/ WCA ID are so I can link people's responses to their competition results. I pretty much trust people not to take the survey over and over - there wouldn't be much point, and I think SurveyMonkey makes that fairly difficult. But I would like to get real confirmation of how fast people are, and be able to look at their improvement over time, which the WCA database does.

I won't release any specific names or the answers that go with them - only aggregate statistics.

You're right that more questions about the physical environment would be interesting. I haven't bothered to think about it all the much personally, so I guess I didn't pay much attention to it when creating the survey. 

When I mentioned "environment" earlier, I meant more general things, such as who you cube with, how much time you cube with others versus along, whether you have time for cubing, and in general life situation-type things rather than the immediate physical surroundings.


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## gyc6001 (May 27, 2011)

very full and complete survery, finished it in 15 minutes.


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## cubeslayer (May 27, 2011)

That was a good survey.


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## cmhardw (May 27, 2011)

Very interesting survey, and I'm excited to see the results (I took it as well). My only complaint is that it felt very 3x3x3 speed focused. I tried to answer all the questions as it relates to my big cubes blind practice (the thing I practice far more than anything else). I do not practice 3x3 speed seriously, and have not for some time. However, I still practice daily and work to improve. I just do it for different events.

Very nice survey overall, I can tell you put a lot of work into this!


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## 5BLD (May 27, 2011)

I actually enjoyed filling it out (I usually hate surveys)! It's made me think about myself and cubing. I can't go to competitions, but yet I still practice. Why? Probably 'cause it's interesting, fun, and a great challenge.
Also, I realised how terrible it was that I have absolutely no cubers who live near me (except a friend who I am teaching Roux to, but that's not exactly a guy you can compete with and discuss advanced techniques with).

Oh, and I realised I need to practice more


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## Sa967St (May 27, 2011)

Interesting stuff. There were a bunch of questions that I REALLY agreed with and others were I was thinking "lolno...". There were also a few that I don't think has been asked (not here on the forums anyway), that I really had to think about.


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## Bapao (May 27, 2011)

Hi, 

Silly question, but is it of any use to you if I take the survey but don't have a WCA profile?


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## uberCuber (May 27, 2011)

b4p4076 said:


> Hi,
> 
> Silly question, but is it of any use to you if I take the survey but don't have a WCA profile?


 
I probably should have asked this before I took the survey, as I don't have one either.


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## Bapao (May 27, 2011)

uberCuber said:


> I probably should have asked this before I took the survey, *as I don't have one either*.


 
From what I've gathered from your posts so far, you're very talented. Would be a shame to let the data that you could contribute slide if a profile is indeed needed.


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## Daniel Wu (May 27, 2011)

I really like this survey. It's very complete.


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## ben1996123 (May 27, 2011)

good survey.

I agree with Sarah, some questions were lol. I lol'd at: "Do you get depressed when someone makes it look so easy?"


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## Bapao (May 27, 2011)

> "Do you get depressed when someone makes it look so easy?"



A legitimate question though IMO. I don't get "depressed" parsay but it does tend to take the wind out of my sails momentarily.


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## cmhardw (May 27, 2011)

b4p4076 said:


> A legitimate question though IMO. I don't get "depressed" parsay but it does tend to take the wind out of my sails.


 
Yes, I feel it is a very legitimate question. Seeing someone perform miles ahead of me makes me first feel a little depressed and like b4p4076 says it totally takes the wind out of my sails. Then the next phase I go through is one of feeling extremely motivated to improve my own times.


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## Jungleterrain (May 27, 2011)

cmhardw said:


> Yes, I feel it is a very legitimate question. Seeing someone perform miles ahead of me makes me first feel a little depressed and like b4p4076 says it totally takes the wind out of my sails. Then the next phase I go through is one of feeling extremely motivated to improve my own times.


 
That all happens to us when we watch one of faz's videos


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## 5BLD (May 27, 2011)

When I see Faz's videos, I just let out a big sigh in my head and think, "there's always someone better..."
Then I feel motivated to improve more and have fun (like chris)


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## teller (May 27, 2011)

b4p4076 said:


> A legitimate question though IMO. I don't get "depressed" parsay but it does tend to take the wind out of my sails momentarily.


 
That sort of thing has never depressed me...I am fascinated and excited that such things are possible, and I want them for myself.


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## meichenl (May 27, 2011)

b4p4076 said:


> Hi,
> 
> Silly question, but is it of any use to you if I take the survey but don't have a WCA profile?


 
Yes - thanks for asking. So there will be one large data set of everyone who replied and one smaller one of the people who have WCA profiles. Some statistical analyses can use the large data set; others the small one.


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## meichenl (May 27, 2011)

cmhardw said:


> My only complaint is that it felt very 3x3x3 speed focused. I tried to answer all the questions as it relates to my big cubes blind practice (the thing I practice far more than anything else). I do not practice 3x3 speed seriously, and have not for some time. However, I still practice daily and work to improve. I just do it for different events.


 
Good point. I wanted to be able to compare people's performances, binning them into objective categories of achievement and look for things like correlations between practice time and solving time. In order to do that, I had to stick to one event. I admit it gives a short shrift to people who don't focus on 3x3 speed solving.


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## Georgeanderre (May 27, 2011)

to focused on 3x3 and not much else, 
not enough written questions, and the multiple choice was to vague i thought
also the method selection was radio buttons and not ticks, I use more than one in most Ao5's so i had to use other -.-
just my opinions so i *dont* expect other to agree


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## meichenl (May 27, 2011)

More than 100 people have replied so far and three-quarters have filled out everything and linked to their WCA results! This is great - the more data, the better. 

The survey is not aimed only at very fast solvers - people who aren't as fast are vital to balance out the results, so don't feel shy.


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## Thompson (May 27, 2011)

That was fun!!


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## uberCuber (May 27, 2011)

btw if it helps any since I don't have a WCA profile, all of my current records are listed in the link in my sig, and my forum join date of June 2010 is about when I actually started cubing, just to give a rough idea (so it has been slightly less than a year that I've been cubing)


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## TheMachanga (May 28, 2011)

I had trouble answering #7 (I didn't have a calculator).


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## Gaétan Guimond (May 28, 2011)

Genetic predisposition yes ! But the teenager is sufficient to achieve the speed world record. I hope those who will check the answers already know this information


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## Dene (May 28, 2011)

That was quite a comprehensive survey. I'm impressed at your effort.


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## meichenl (May 28, 2011)

TheMachanga said:


> I had trouble answering #7 (I didn't have a calculator).


 
You can plug your calculation into Google like this:

http://www.google.com/search?q=1023*1.23


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## Phlippieskezer (May 28, 2011)

I'm paranoid, so I just gave you my forum name. 
(Not real name)


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## ben1996123 (May 28, 2011)

Gaétan Guimond said:


> Genetic predisposition yes ! But the teenager is sufficient to achieve the speed world record. I hope those who will check the answers already know this information



loolë


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## MalusDB (May 28, 2011)

I would help you, but i have no WCA ID :/


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## nickvu2 (May 28, 2011)

Can you define "talent"? Are you considering it something you're born with, as opposed to something you acquire through hard work?


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## Rpotts (May 28, 2011)

From my interpretation of the survey he seems to juxtapose "talent" with practice, so I would assume he's leaning more toward innate ability.


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## Truncator (May 28, 2011)

Interesting survey. The results will hopefully be nice as well =)


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## meichenl (May 28, 2011)

About 150 people have taken the survey, with three-quarters filling out all the information. It'll remain open for about two weeks, so feel free to take it if you haven't yet. It will probably be around two weeks for me to do all the analysis I'm interested in.


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## JonnyWhoopes (May 28, 2011)

What kind of effect would old WCA results have? For example, I have improved leaps and bounds since my one competition, yet that is the results you would have from the WCA.


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## clincr (May 28, 2011)

Very well conducted survey, it focuses on the right areas.


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## meichenl (May 28, 2011)

JonnyWhoopes said:


> What kind of effect would old WCA results have? For example, I have improved leaps and bounds since my one competition, yet that is the results you would have from the WCA.


 
As with any study, a single data point isn't the story; we're looking for overall trends. Your self-reported average time in practice will also be helpful.


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## MoRpHiiNe (May 29, 2011)

I just took your survey, I enjoyed filling it out . Even though I'm new to cubing and am not the best yet, it'll be great to see how much I improve and it was fun writing down what I believe .


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## Gaétan Guimond (May 29, 2011)

What interests me and I studied more about the cube is already the corners because no human has full control of each scramble on the 2x2x2 fewest move.

In 2007 world championship Erno Rubik was present. No cuber who knew her my story seems to have mentioned me. Probably they were too concentrated for the competition. Only Cartesian minds, too bad. I went through the time when the cube was dead on television. Because I had the originality necessary. The cube is a symbol of frustration and I started the challenge. Not many people have been hated and loved as me. I am a paradox. Just hide the story of a guy who has greatly assisted the return of the cube in the world. 

Friends in hungary tourist tried to join Erno Rubik for me but without success.


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## irontwig (May 29, 2011)

Who hates you, Guimond?


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## RTh (May 29, 2011)

Finished survey, didn't skip any question.


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## StachuK1992 (May 29, 2011)

Nice survey.
I'm interested in the results. Perhaps give us a sneak-peek at a week? 
Or have a cap of, say, 500 people? Not sure what you're looking for.


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## xabu1 (May 29, 2011)

I would be interested in seeing the results to this survey, I am interested in how talking to other cubers affects people's times


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## gyc6001 (Jun 2, 2011)

results?


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## StachuK1992 (Jun 2, 2011)

gyc6001 said:


> results?



asdf


meichenl said:


> About 150 people have taken the survey, with three-quarters filling out all the information. It'll remain open for about two weeks, so feel free to take it if you haven't yet. It will probably be around two weeks for me to do all the analysis I'm interested in.


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## sauso (Jun 2, 2011)

Heya, I also completed the whole survey. Really keep to see the results!


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## De Dovla (Jun 2, 2011)

Very nice survey!


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## speedcuber100 (Jun 2, 2011)

very long and time consuming!!!1


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## meichenl (Jun 4, 2011)

Thank you to everyone who took the time to fill out the survey.

I'm closing it now at about 230 responses and beginning data analysis. The response was really excellent - there's a broad range of abilities represented, including about five people with sub-10:00 averages in competition.

It's my first time using this software, so I don't know how difficult it will be to do the things I want to do with the data. I hope to have a report published in about a week, though.


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## ben1996123 (Jun 4, 2011)

irontwig said:


> Who hates you, Guimond?



_*
ME
*__*​*_


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## Hershey (Jun 4, 2011)

irontwig said:


> Who hates you, Guimond?


 
LOL everyone?


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## irontwig (Jun 4, 2011)

lolno?


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## Shortey (Jun 4, 2011)

I love Guimond


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## Nopedk (Jun 4, 2011)

Finished it..


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## meichenl (Jun 11, 2011)

I apologize for the delay in publishing results. I'm using this survey as an opportunity to learn data analysis in SciPy, but I'm having difficulty with some details of the formatting of the files I've downloaded from SurveyMonkey. On top of that, I'm in the process of moving, but in a few days I should have some free time. Again, sorry to have everyone put time into the survey and then hold out on the results.


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## cmhardw (Jun 11, 2011)

-27 Internets

But that's ok, we'll still forgive you


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