Elementary students’ solutions of Raven’s standard progressive matrices: logical and psychological analysis

Abstract

Background. Questions regarding what exactly is measured by the most popular intelligence test — Raven’s Standard Progressive Matrices (SPM), and how the age-dependent characteristics of thinking process are impacting the performance, are still debatable and insufficiently studied. 

Objective. The study had its purpose to reveal the characteristics of the thinking process in the elementary school students, at the age of 7 and 9, engaged in the performance of the SPM tasks. 

Methods. A three-stage study combining the cross-sectional and longitudinal methods with content analysis of children’s justifications for choosing specific answers on different test items. 

Sample. 46 students from Moscow school with an advanced level of complexity (21 boys and 25 girls) took the test twice — in the 1st grade (mean age 7,5 years, range: 6,11–8,0) and in the 3rd grade (mean age 9,6 years, range: 9,0–10,0). 

Results. The analysis of children’s explanations, recorded while they were solving the SPM problems aloud, and the logical analysis of their wrong answers, based on their concordance with the structure of the SPM test, showed that there are not only quantitative, but also qualitative changes in intellectual development of children aged 7 and 9. 

Conclusion. The same mistake made by children of different age might be an indicator of the different levels of their intellectual abilities. The different ways they use to solve the SPM tasks might be due to the qualitatively different thinking processes, characteristic for a certain age. Therefore, the results obtained by means of SPM test must be supplemented with the qualitative analysis of wrong answers in order to assess the true level of mental abilities of a child at the elementary school level.

References

Babcock, R.L. (2002). Analysis of age differences in types of errors on the Raven’s Advanced Progressive Matrices. Intelligence, 30 (6), 485–503. 

Bujas, Z. (1966). Modifikacija Ravenovih Progresivnih Matrica. Zagreb: Odsjek za psihologiju. 

Bujas, Z., Bartolović, B., & Vodanović, M. (1967). Test višestrukih rješenja. Zagreb: Odsjek za psihologiju. 

Carpenter, P.A., Just, M.A., 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. 

Conway, A.R.A., Bunting, M.F., Therriault, D.J., Minkoff, S.R.B. (2002). A latent variable analysis of working memory capacity, short-term memory capacity, processing speed, and general fluid intelligence. Intelligence, 30, 163–183. 

Garcia-Garzon, E., Abad, F.J., Garrido, L.E. (2019). Searching for g: A new evaluation of spmls dimensionality. Journal of Intelligence, 7 (3), 14. 

Kunda, M., Souliers, I., Royga, A., Goel, A.K. (2016). Error patterns on the Raven’s Standard Progressive Matrices Test. Intelligence, 59, 181–198. 

Matzen, L.E., Zachary, O.B., Kevin, R.D., Posey, J., Kroger, J.K., Speed, A.E. (2010). Recreating Raven’s: Software for systematically gerenating large numbers of Raven-like matrix problems with normed properties. Behavior Research Methods, 42 (2), 525–541. 

Piaget, J. (2004). Psychology of intellect. SPb.: Piter. (In Russ.). 

Raven, J.C. (1997). Manual for Raven’s progressive matrices and vocabulary scale. Section 1. General overview. M.: Kogito-Tsentr. (In Russ.). 

Sigel, I.E. (1963). How intelligence tests limit understanding of intelligence. Merrill-Palmer Quarterly of Behavior and Development, 9 (1), 39–56. 

Stevanović, B. (2000). Inteligencija i njen razvoj. Beograd: Zavod za udžbenike i nastavna sredstva. 

Stevenson, C.E., Hickendorff, M., Resing, W.C.M., Heiser, W.J., de Boeck, P.A.L. (2013). Explanatory item response modeling of children’s change on a dynamic test of analogical reasoning. Intelligence, 41 (3), 157–168. 

Vodegel-Matzen, L.B.L., van der Molen, M.W., Dudink, A.C.M. (1994). Error analysis of Raven test performance. Personality and Individual Differences, 16 (3), 433–445. 

Vucicevic, B. (2022). Age and Individual Differences in the Intellectual Development of Elementary Schoolchildren when Solving SPM Tasks. Psikhologo-pedagogicheskie issledovaniya (Psychological-Educational Studies), 14 (1). (Retrieved from https://psyjournals.ru/files/128491/psyedu_2022_n1_Vucicevic.pdf) (review date: 07.10.2022). (In Russ.). 

Vygotsky, L.S. (2016). Language and thought. M.: Natsional’noe obrazovanie. (In Russ.). 

Živanović, M., Bjekić, J., Opačić, G. (2018a). Multiple solutions test part I: Development and psychometric evaluation. Psihologija, 51 (3), 351–375. 

Živanović, M., Bjekić, J., Opačić, G. (2018b). Multiple solutions test part II: Evidence on construct and predictive validity. Psihologija, 51 (3), 377–396.