Does Rubik's Cube Increase IQ? What the Studies Show

Does Rubik's Cube increase IQ? No study we found shows it. The evidence runs the other way. In 79 novices taught the cube, fluid reasoning, a core part of what IQ tests measure, explained 30% to 35% of how far they got (Meinz and colleagues, 2023). Practice builds cube skill, and may build spatial skill. Nothing shows it lifts a general IQ score.

Here is the new finding: the best cube studies measure how much reasoning ability helps people learn the cube. They do not measure whether the cube changes that ability. Below: what each study did, what a correlation of .24 means, and what the wider training research says about transfer.

Does Rubik's Cube increase IQ?

Does Rubik's Cube increase IQ? Not on the evidence we found. On 3 November 2026 we searched Europe PMC, OpenAlex and Crossref for trials that gave people cube practice and an intelligence test before and after. We found none. What exists are studies of who learns the cube fastest and what the brain does while solving it.

Those are different questions, and they are easy to mix up. If clever people learn the cube quickly, the cube can look like the cause of their cleverness. Only a trial can separate the two. Assign people to practise or not, test everyone before and after, and compare the change.

What does solving a Rubik's Cube demand of you?

The Hungarian architect and sculptor Erno Rubik invented the cube in 1974. The popular beginner method has seven steps, and each must be mastered before the next. A solver has to hold the steps in mind and judge what each turn will do to the pattern. That is reasoning with a new problem, which is why researchers expected IQ-type ability to matter.

Learning it is slow. In the 2023 study the 79 novices reached step 2.58 of 7 on average (standard deviation 1.83) in a session of up to six hours. A 2013 computer proof by Rokicki and colleagues showed that any scramble can be solved in 20 moves or fewer. Finding those moves is a different task from learning a method.

What do the studies on the Rubik's Cube and IQ show?

Three recent peer-reviewed studies used real cubes. None tested whether cube practice raises IQ.

• Meinz, Hambrick, Leach and Boschulte (Journal of Intelligence, 2023): 79 undergraduates with little or no cube experience (mean age 20.1) learned a seven-step beginner method from videos in one session of up to six hours. Fluid reasoning, measured with mental rotation, paper folding and Raven's matrices, explained 30.9% of the variance in efficiency, 34.7% in the last step reached and 29.8% in accuracy. Working memory added no significant effect, and grit, growth mindset, need for cognition and the Big Five traits together added almost nothing
• Daniels, Moreau and Macnamara (Journal of Intelligence, 2022): 133 adults at Case Western Reserve University (mean age 24) were randomly assigned to practise on cubes of rising, varied or constant difficulty, then attempted a 5 x 5 x 5 cube. Performance did not differ by condition, and Raven's Advanced Progressive Matrices scores correlated with cube performance at r = .24
• Zarei and colleagues (Experimental Brain Research, 2025): EEG recordings from 13 experienced male speed-cubers. Delta-band power in the occipital lobe correlated with cube execution at r = .71. The abstract describes no comparison group and no IQ score

The first two studies share one result. A Raven's-type test predicts how well people handle the cube. That fits what Raven's matrices are built to capture, which is reasoning with new problems. It is why the cube feels like an intelligence task.

Is there a Rubik's Cube IQ correlation?

Yes. The Rubik's Cube IQ correlation is moderate, and it runs from reasoning to cube skill. In the 2023 study the reasoning composite explained about 30% to 35% of the variance in cube skill. That equals a correlation of roughly .55 to .59 (our arithmetic: the square root). In the 2022 study the correlation was .24, which explains about 6% (.24 squared).

The two numbers are not rival estimates of one thing. The studies used different cube tasks, different people and different tests. One used three reasoning tests combined. The other used one. Both point the same way: better reasoning goes with better cube learning.

A correlation does not say which way the cause runs. Better reasoning could help people learn the cube. Learning the cube could improve reasoning. Or a third factor, such as an interest in puzzles, could drive both. The 2022 trial tested the order of practice, not a change in IQ, so it cannot settle that. For the difference between reasoning and stored knowledge, see fluid vs crystallized intelligence.

What is the Rubik's Cube IQ level?

There is no Rubik's Cube IQ level. We found no published study that turns a solve time, or a speedcubing average, into an IQ score.

The 13 speed-cubers in the 2025 EEG study were tested on planning, line-angle judgement, memory and fine motor tasks, not on an IQ test.

An IQ score places you against a norm group, with an average of 100 and a standard deviation of 15 on most modern tests. A cube time has no such norm group. If you see a chart that pairs solve times with IQ scores, ask which study it comes from. We could not find one. You can see what any real IQ score means with our IQ percentile calculator.

Does the Rubik's Cube make you smarter?

Does the Rubik's Cube make you smarter? Not on the evidence we have. Practice improves cube skill. Whether it spreads to other abilities is the question of transfer, and reviews of brain training find little of it.

• Simons and colleagues (Psychological Science in the Public Interest, 2016) reviewed the studies cited by leading brain-training companies. They found extensive evidence of gains on the trained tasks, less on closely related tasks, and little evidence of gains on distantly related tasks or everyday performance
• Melby-Lervåg, Redick and Hulme (Perspectives on Psychological Science, 2016) pooled 87 publications and 145 comparisons of working memory training. Against treated control groups they found no convincing evidence of reliable gains on nonverbal ability, verbal ability, reading or arithmetic
• Sala and Gobet (Current Directions in Psychological Science, 2017) found that effects of chess, music and working memory training were inversely related to design quality, and concluded that far transfer of learning rarely occurs
• Sala and Gobet (Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 2019) summarised their meta-analyses as a minimal effect on domain-general cognitive skills

One result favours spatial training. Uttal and colleagues (Psychological Bulletin, 2013) pooled 217 studies and found an average training effect of g = 0.47 on spatial skills. The gains also showed up on spatial tasks that were not trained. That is evidence that spatial skills can be trained. It is not evidence that IQ rises, and it covers many kinds of training, not cubes in particular. Our guides to spatial reasoning and to paper folding and mental rotation questions show what those skills look like on a test.

How does this compare with Sudoku and brain-training apps?

The gap between a trained task and general reasoning shows up elsewhere too. Our review of Sudoku and IQ found no study that converts a solving time into an IQ. Placebo-controlled replications of dual n-back training found no gain in reasoning. And in the 20-year ACTIVE trial, covered in our piece on brain-training apps, only one of three training arms showed a lower rate of dementia diagnosis. None of those was an IQ gain.

What should you take from the Rubik's Cube research?

• Enjoy the cube for what it is: a hard spatial puzzle with a clear finish. Expect to get better at the cube
• Do not expect your IQ score to move because of it. No trial we found supports that
• If you want a higher score on a reasoning test, practise that kind of test. Familiarity with the format helps on a retest, a point our guide to practice effects covers, and it is not the same as higher ability
• To see where you stand on spatial and abstract reasoning, take a timed test and read the percentile, not a cube time

Curious how your reasoning compares? Take the IQ test, or try the spatial IQ test for the skill the cube leans on. A cube time tells you about the cube. A percentile tells you where you stand against other people.

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