Speed solving increase processing skill?

[Paul Wagner]

I believe this is the correct topic for this type of discussion I believe it's a little off-topic but I really wanted to put this in the air.
Okay so I was watching this video on savants, and there was this pianist and they said he could memorize music so well because of his heightened sensitivity of sound because he was blind.
I was wondering do you think that you're skill of processing increases after scrambling a cube and solving it so much but not just in cubing for other fields too,
because if you scramble a lot, the more you practice the more used to scrambling you will be.
So in conclusion, the more you scramble the quicker you will be able to process because you are seeing it so often.
What is your input on this and thank you so much for reading!

 

[cmhardw]

I think speedcubing has increased my processing ability for speedcubing. I can't say if it has helped me in other areas. I perceive that it "helps" me in other areas, but I have no definitive proof of this claim. The only proof I have is that BLD cubing has increased my real world short term memory ability. I had an episode about a year ago where I needed to meet a coworker at her house to deliver some papers. I had never been there before, so I wrote down the directions on a sheet of paper, and left the office having forgotten the paper. I was able to visually recall the paper and the directions which took 7 roads, only 2-3 of which were familiar to me, to get to her house. I was also able to correctly recall the house number without having to call.

Other than that episode, I don't know if speedcubing has helped me improve any "real world" abilities. I still love to cube even if it isn't helpful. It is fun to be good at something, even if that something is pointless in and of itself.

Chris

 

[rahulkadukar]

Well I can now remember phone numbers after hearing them only once thanks to BLD memorization and apart ftrom that I can memorize things for a short while very fast especially lists, peoples names and of course Phone Numbers

 

[V-te]

Yes, Actually, I just got into HTML and it doesn't seem as confusing anymore because it all works like a puzzle. (for me anyway.) Also, my dad and I were working on assembling a bike, and we lost the instructions, So I only had to look at the pieces and after about 10 minutes, I was able to complete the "puzzle" thanks to the shape shifters. So cubing does really benefit you, you just have to know where.

 

[AvGalen]

Speedsolving hasn't helped my brain process anything faster.

Speedsolving has convinced me that the best way to do repetitive tasks is by relying on automatism (muscle memory)

Cubing in general has helped me break up big and complicated problems into smaller, easy, independent problems

Blindfolded cubing has helped me in organising information for short or longer memorisation

FMC has helped me realise that "quick-and-dirty" works best most of the time. Only when you need to highly optimise efficiency should you do so.

Cubing has helped me meet a lot of people (not just other cubers). Interacting with lots of different people really increased my social skills and my joy in life

 

[V-te]

Sorry for bump, so according to Chris and AV, BLD increases memory?

 

[LNZ]

As some one who can't do fast and accurate complex pattern recogisition well, cubing has slowly improved pattern matching and sequencing skills.

I have already noticed the difference. The "stare" (time I stare at a cube to work out what alg to do) time I used to start 2-look OLL/PLL has come down from about 30 seconds in April 2009 to about a 7 second average now.

And my brain (which always thinks slower than my hands can move) lag time has dropped alot too. Still not low enough to learn fast finger tricks though but much better than before my first ever 3x3 solve.

 

[enigmahack]

I think honestly that it has helped me with a few things.

Firstly, pattern recognition time - I can recognize patterns way faster than I would before, almost like it's unconscious. (I notice this mostly in my piano playing when it comes to sight-reading music... which I used to really suck at. I still suck at it, just not as badly, and that's without practicing it specifically)

This has also been proven for me with a game called bejeweled, which is this game where you find jems and line 3 of them up to make them disappear. Anyway, I rock the pants off that game pretty regularly... and it's not just the pattern recognition there.

There's look ahead too. I think my 3D spatial vision has helped, where I'm not looking at the pieces I've already decided I'm going to move, but looking forward at what I need to do. (this is also true for sight reading)

Which leads me to the 3rd other thing - Chess. I find I'm able to look WAY further ahead (visualize what's possible with greater accuracy)
Mind you I still am not terribly good, because I still have to work on the decision making process, but I can 'see' more moves into the future and I'm actually losing less games as a result.

So I don't think in my life, it's totally been for nothing, I think it's a good exercise and I do enjoy doing it. I just need to balance physical exercise with mental, and then I'll be moving even more forward in the right direction. (getting off topic)

I'd be interested to see if a cuber would out-perform on a non-twisty puzzle than a non-cuber. I find puzzles WAY easier now, that I have a structured method for breaking things down and looking at them in a different way.

Just a thought.

 

[a small kitten]

As a musician, cubing helps me develop finger dexterity, flexibility and endurance. It's a great warm up before practice. It's also fun by itself.

 

[Mike Hughey]

Sorry for bump, so according to Chris and AV, BLD increases memory?

It looks like Chris is saying it actually improved his short-term memory. AvG is simply saying that he can use his BLD memorization techniques to memorize non-cubing things, which is certainly true. I often use my BLD method to memorize shopping lists when my wife asks me to get things at the store. It's very reliable for that, and works quite well. I was also able to use my BLD method to memorize a deck of cards successfully very easily. You can use it for almost any memorization task if you want, assuming the size of the memorization task matches your method fairly well. (I don't think my memory method would be helpful at all in memorizing an encyclopedia, for instance.) (I wonder how F.P. is doing with that?)

As for Chris's claim that it actually improved his short-term memory without using a system, I'm not sure I believe it has done that for me. Perhaps I am a little more practiced at it, but I'm not sure I could quantify that improvement.