Cognitive Profiles on the RIOT IQ Test Results

Robert Neir

Feb 14, 2025

For many years, test developers have recognized that IQ is not the only important score to interpret. Scores from narrower cognitive abilities matter a great deal, too, because they reveal more information than an overall IQ can. This pattern of scores--called a "cognitive profile"--describes a person's relative strengths and weaknesses. As such, we included cognitive profiles in the RIOT IQ test results. Here is a list of all cognitive profiles you might see within those results.

In the table below, V = Verbal Ability, F = Fluid Reasoning, and S = Spatial Ability

Profile	Explanation	Subject alignment
V ≈ F ≈ S	You have a flat profile, meaning that you are equally strong in the three most important cognitive abilities. This is the most common profile, found in 23.0% of American adults. This profile is similar to people who work in multidisciplinary jobs, such as technical writing, or marketing.	Design, teaching, marketing
V > F ≈ S	You have a V+ profile, which means that your verbal ability is higher than your fluid reasoning and spatial ability. This profile is found in 14.9% of American adults. This profile is typical for people who work in jobs that require a lot of reading and writing, such as an historian, customer service agent, and mental health counselor.	Writing and editing, communications, law, teaching, foreign languages, medicine, biology, business, psychology
V < F ≈ S	You have a FS+ profile, which means that you have strengths in both fluid reasoning and spatial ability. This profile is found in 17.3% of American adults. This profile is typical for people who work in jobs that require problem solving and thinking about two- or three-dimensional space, such as logistics manager, mechanic, and laboratory technician.	Engineering, physics, chemistry, trades
F > V ≈ S	You have a F+ profile, which means that fluid reasoning is higher than your verbal and spatial abilities. This profile is found in 10.3% of American adults.This profile is typical for people in jobs that require solving problems that may not have a clear solution, such as event planners, managers, and entrepeneurs.	Business, computer science, psychology, communications
F < V ≈ S	You have a VS+ profile, which means that you have strengths in both verbal and spatial ability. This profile is found in 9.4% of American adults. This profile is common in people who work in jobs that require them to communicate about two- and three-dimensional space, such as air traffic controller, robot operator, and desktop publishers.	Design, business, medicine, teaching
S > V ≈ F	You have a S+ profile, which means that your spatial ability is stronger than your verbal ability and fluid reasoning. This profile is found in 7.2% of American adults. This profile is common in people working jobs that rely heavily on thinking about objects in two- and three-dimensional space, such as landscape architects, firefighters, and surveyors.	Engineering, physics, chemistry, architecture, visual art, geography
S < V ≈ F	You have a VF+ profile, which means that you have strengths in both verbal ability and fluid reasoning. This profile is found in 7.4% of American adults. This profile is common in people who work in jobs that require them to explain their problem solving to others, such as lawyers, genetic counselors, and actuaries.	Humanities, medicine, biology, law
V > F > S	You have a VFS profile, which means that your verbal ability is noticeably stronger than your fluid reasoning, which is stronger than your spatial ability. This profile is found in 1.2% of American adults. This profile is common in people who work in jobs like human resources manager, copywriter, and public relations specialist.	Social sciences, foreign languages, medicine, biology, teaching, writing and editing
V > S > F	You have a VSF profile, which means that your verbal ability is noticeably stronger than your spatial ability, which is stronger than your fluid reasoning. This profile is found in 2.9% of American adults. This profile is common in people who work in jobs like sales representative, archivist, and public speaker.	Foreign languages, business, marketing, teaching
F > V > S	You have a FVS profile, which means that your fluid reasoning is noticeably stronger than your verbal ability, which is stronger than your spatial ability. This is the rarest profile, found in 0.7% of American adults. This profile is common in people who work in jobs like consultant, research psychologist, and math teacher.	Law, business, computer science, psychology
F > S > V	You have a FSV profile, which means that your fluid reasoning is noticeably stronger than your spatial ability, which is stronger than your verbal ability ability. This profile is found in 2.6% of American adults. This profile is common in people who work in jobs like civil engineer, repair technician, and data analyst.	Engineering, physics, chemistry, trades, computer science
S > V > F	You have a SVF profile, which means that your spatial ability is noticeably stronger than your verbal ability, which is stronger than your fluid reasoning. This profile is found in 1.4% of American adults. This profile is common in people who work in jobs like architect, dentist, and cameraman.	Architecture, trades, geography
S > F > V	You have a SFV profile, which means that your spatial ability is noticeably stronger than your fluid reasoning, which is stronger than your verbal ability. This profile is found in 1.7% of American adults. This profile is common in people who work in jobs like video game designer, urban planner, and sculptor.	Engineering, physics, chemistry, architecture, visual art

Below is the minimum difference between two index T-scores that must be present for the index scores to be different:

• Verbal vs. Fluid: 5.54 T-score points or greater

• Verbal vs. Spatial: 5.54 T-score points or greater

• Fluid vs. Spatial: 6.14 T-score points or greater

Procedure for assigning people to profiles:

1. Compute absolute differences and normalized ratios:

• diff_VF = |Verbal_T - Fluid_T|, ratio_VF = diff_VF / 5.54

• diff_VS = |Verbal_T - Spatial_T|, ratio_VS = diff_VS / 5.54

• diff_FS = |Fluid_T - Spatial_T|, ratio_FS = diff_FS / 6.14

2. Check whether all three index scores are equal:

• If ratio_VF < 1 & ratio_VS < 1 & ratio_FS < 1, classify as "Verbal_T = Fluid_T = Spatial_T".

3. Check if two index scores are equal with one outlier:

• Identify the pair with the smallest ratio (most similar relative to its critical value).

• If that ratio < 1, classify that pair as equal and the third score as the outlier.

• Determine the direction: The outlier is ">" if it's greater than both scores in the pair; "<" if less than both. (By construction, since the pair is the most equal and we're not in the all-equal case, the outlier will always be significantly different from at least one in the pair, and the direction will be unambiguous.)

• If ratios are tied for smallest, arbitrarily prioritize in a fixed order (e.g., check VF first, then VS, then FS) to ensure mutual exclusivity.

4. Otherwise, all scores are different can be assigned to one of the last 6 profiles.

Here are some examples below:

Verbal T	Fluid T	Spatial T	Profile
44.68	47.22	43.78	V = F = S (because none of the profiles are significantly different from one another)
58.26	63.70	68.92	V < F = S (both F and S are statistically higher than V, but they do not differ from one another)
57.04	53.88	60.2	F < S = V (fluid is statistically lower than S and V, which are equal to each other)
50.02	55.96	62.44	V < F < S (all three index scores are statistically different from one another)

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