What kind of task it is
This task asks you to look at a completed figure and choose the combination of pieces that can reproduce it.
Pieces may be rotated, but they may not be flipped over. The task requires mentally rotating pieces, simulating their placement, and checking whether the combination is correct.
In this task, the completed figure is first seen as something that can be divided into parts. Then the pieces are combined mentally to check whether they match the completed shape. It is a task that moves between whole and parts while checking figure correspondences in the mind.
Visual Puzzles is not a task where physical pieces are moved by hand. It uses figures shown on the screen and handles processes closer to decomposition, placement, and matching.
What it measures
Within the five domains of BrainTypeIQ, this is one task that measures Gv (visual-spatial processing).
Within Gv, it especially measures visualization, or the ability to simulate how a complex pattern will look after being transformed.
- Visual Puzzles handles the relationship between parts and the whole, or decomposition and reconstruction
- The other Gv task, Paper Folding, follows the sequence of fold → hole → unfold
Even within Gv, Visual Puzzles handles spatial decomposition and assembly, while Paper Folding handles tracking a sequence of transformations. Reading both makes it easier to see which kinds of Gv processing appear more clearly.
For Gv overall, see what visual-spatial processing (Gv) is.
When the score is higher
When the Visual Puzzles score is higher, the correspondence between the completed shape and the parts is easier to find.
Looking at the completed figure, it is easier to think about which part may correspond to which piece. Even when a piece is rotated, the rotated form is easier to imagine. When candidate pieces are combined, it is easier to check whether they fit the whole shape.
This process is close to situations where figures or structures are divided into parts, or where the result of combining several parts has to be imagined.
When the score is lower
Even when the Visual Puzzles score is lower, it cannot by itself judge visual-spatial processing as a whole. Several factors overlap in the score.
- High load from decomposing the completed form - It is necessary to decide where to divide the whole into parts
- High load from handling piece orientation - The shape after rotation has to be checked in the mind
- Being pulled by partial matches - A piece that fits only part of the figure may be chosen before the whole is checked
Visual Puzzles makes Gv easier to see, but it does not represent all of Gv. Changes in position from folding to unfolding are more likely to appear in Paper Folding, while finding rules in figures can also appear in Matrix Reasoning.
BrainTypeIQ is an online IQ test with 9 tasks, including Visual Puzzles, that shows overall IQ and the five-domain cognitive profile. Reading several tasks together, rather than one task alone, makes the meaning of the result easier to see.
For reading the report, see How to read the report.