By the Helibrain team · Reviewed by Robert, biophysics PhD candidate · Last checked: 2026-10-31
What this test measures
Matrix puzzles test abstract reasoning: spotting the rules that change across rows and columns, and applying them to fill the gap. Raven's Progressive Matrices made this format famous, and because it needs no words it has been used with many groups of people around the world [2]. Solving harder puzzles means finding several rules at once and keeping them in mind [3].
Where the puzzles come from
The puzzles are the Sandia matrices, made by researchers at Sandia National Laboratories, who built software that combines the kinds of rules found in Raven's test into new puzzles. In their study, the new puzzles covered and extended the range of difficulty of the original test [1]. This is the same item set as the reasoning test in the Helibrain app. Each run draws 12 puzzles at random, so no two runs are the same.
How to read your score
Your score is how many puzzles you solved. Because every run draws a different mix of easy and hard puzzles, one score is a rough snapshot. We don't compare you with other people: this is not an IQ test and gives no IQ number. Compare with your own runs over time.
Tips
- Look along each row, then down each column. Ask what changes: shape, number, position, shading.
- Some puzzles stack two or three rules at once. Check every rule against your chosen piece.
- There is no clock, so take your time.
Credits and licence
Puzzles: Sandia matrices by Sandia National Laboratories, from Matzen et al. (2010) [1], released at github.com/sandialabs/Matrices under the BSD 3-Clause licence. Sandia does not endorse Helibrain.
Licence text
Copyright (c) 2010 Sandia Corporation. Under the terms of Contract DE-AC04-94AL85000 with Sandia Corporation, the U.S. Government retains certain rights in this software.
Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions are met:
* Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer.
* Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution.
* Neither the name of the Sandia Corporation nor the names of its contributors may be used to endorse or promote products derived from this software without specific prior written permission.
THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE COPYRIGHT HOLDERS AND CONTRIBUTORS "AS IS" AND ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE ARE DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL SANDIA CORPORATION BE LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGE.Sources
- Matzen LE, Benz ZO, Dixon KR, Posey J, Kroger JK, Speed AE (2010). Recreating Raven’s: Software for systematically generating large numbers of Raven-like matrix problems with normed properties. Behavior Research Methods 42(2):525–541. https://doi.org/10.3758/BRM.42.2.525
- Raven J (2000). The Raven's Progressive Matrices: change and stability over culture and time. Cognitive Psychology 41(1):1–48. https://doi.org/10.1006/cogp.1999.0735
- Carpenter PA, Just MA, Shell P (1990). What one intelligence test measures: a theoretical account of the processing in the Raven Progressive Matrices Test. Psychological Review 97(3):404–431. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-295X.97.3.404
- Sandia National Laboratories. Matrices: the matrix generation software and the normed matrices of Matzen et al. (2010). https://github.com/sandialabs/Matrices