What kind of cuber are you? (survey)

[meichenl]

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

 

[Zane_C]

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.

 

[MrIndianTeen]

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.

 

[meichenl]

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.

 

[That70sShowDude]

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

 

[JonnyWhoopes]

Completed. Very interesting survey.

 

[Olji]

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

 

[d4m4s74]

I'm doing this right now.

 

[DavidWoner]

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?

 

[DavidWoner]

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?

 

[ianography]

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.

 

[uberCuber]

Very interesting survey, just finished.

 

[meichenl]

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.

 

[gyc6001]

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

 

[cubeslayer]

That was a good survey.

 

[cmhardw]

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!

 

[5BLD]

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

 

[Sa967St]

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.

 

[Bapao]

Hi,

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

 

[uberCuber]

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.