Ravens Progressive Matrices

THE RAVENS PROGRESSIVE MATRICES

Background 

Designed by John C. Raven in 1936

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The Ravens Progressive Matrices is a non-verbal psychometric assessment. It comes in three formats:   

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The Ravens Standard Progressive Matrices (SPM) The Coloured Progressive Matrices (CPM) The Advanced Progressive Matrices (APM).

It was intended to be a culture fair test of general ability, it has been found that education influences performance to a small degree (Lezak et al., 2004)

What the Raven’s measures 

The Raven’s is a test of observation skills and clear-thinking ability. It offers insight into someone’s capacity to observe, solve problems, and learn.

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The Raven’s is constructed to measure eductive ability – this is a component of g (general intelligence) as measured by Spearman’s theory of cognitive ability.

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Furthermore, eductive ability refers to an individual’s ability to make sense of complex data, the ability to perceive new patterns & relationships.

The Three Formats 

Standard Progressive Matrices (SPM): This the original form of the matrices. The booklet comprises five sets (A to E) of 12 items each. All items are presented in black ink on a white background.

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Coloured Progressive Matrices (CPM): Designed for children aged 5 through 11 years-of-age, the elderly, and mentally and physically impaired individuals. This test contains sets A and B from the standard matrices, with a further set of 12 items inserted between the two, as set Ab. Most items are presented on a coloured background to make the test visually stimulating for participants. However the very last few items in set B are presented as black on white; in this way, if a subject exceeds the tester's expectations, transition to sets C, D, and E of the standard matrices is eased.

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Advanced Progressive Matrices (APM): The advanced form of the matrices contains 48 items, presented as one set of 12 (set I), and another of 36 (set II). Items are again presented in black ink on a white background, and each set becomes increasingly difficult. The APM is used for adults and adolescents of above-average intelligence.

Application/Use

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Raven’s Progressive Matrices have a wide variety of applications including:

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In educational settings the Matrices have a long history of application and use.

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Scores are relatively unaffected by linguistic and ethnic background and can be used as a good predictor of success in an educational context for both children and adults.

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In clinical settings the reliability of the measures and lack of bias makes them ideal tools in neuropsychological assessment, working with elderly people and many clinical groups whose particular needs make the demands of more traditional cognitive testing unrealistic.

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Suitable in cross-cultural contexts & for use with individuals who have physical disabilities.

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Useful for considering an individual’s reasoning skills – mistakes can be interesting clinical data.

Norms

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There are South African norms for the Raven’s SPM for working adults (ages 18 to 57 years only).

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There are children’s norms for the Coloured Progressive Matrices (CPM). This is only however, for children between the ages of 6 to 12 years 8 months.

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There are also norms for the Advanced Progressive Matrices for adults between 21 to 61 years.

Administration 

Paper and Pencil. There is also a computer based version of the RPM.

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Individual or group administration can be done.

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Untimed but generally takes between 40 -60 minutes.

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Can be administered to individuals who do not speak English or who are hearing impaired. In this instance, it should be administered individually or a small group with a maximum of 5.

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You need to consult the manual carefully before administering the test.

Test Format 

The test taker is required to conceptualise spatial design & numerical relationships ranging from simple/obvious to complex and abstract.

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It requires form pattern completion to reasoning by analogy at levels from very simple to very complex.

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These analogical abilities call on left hemisphere functions mainly.

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Each set becomes progressively more difficult.

Individuals complete their answers on this standard answer sheet. They are required to place a line across their choice of answer.

Raven's Standard Progressive Matrices

The test taker places a line through the answer they think is correct.

Raven's Standard Progressive Matrices

This is a copy of the score key used to total the correct number of answers for the Raven’s SPM. It is attached to the answer sheet which has carbon paper backed to it. Therefore the individual’s answers are duplicated onto the score sheet. You only count up the lines that appear over the correct number.

Raven's Standard Progressive Matrices

How to calculate the score For the purposes of this example, only a clip of part of the score key is provided- as you can see only Sets C- E appear on the slide. When scoring you will need to count up only the lines that appear over the correct answer. One mark is given for each correct answer.

Total the number of correct responses for each Set (Sets A-E). You need to write the total for each set in the appropriate space provided. Raven's Standard Progressive Matrices

This is the norm table used to determine the percentile rank in the example above

Raven's Standard Progressive Matrices

This is the percentile that corresponds with the score obtained by the individual.

To find the percentile you need to check the individual’s score against their age group.

The total score of the individual.

Raven's Standard Progressive Matrices

Scores are classified according to a ‘Grade’

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GRADE I: INTELLECTUALLY SUPERIOR – SCORED AT OR ABOVE THE 95TH PERCENTILE.

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GRADE II: ABOVE AVERAGE – IF SCORE LIES AT THE 75 TH PERCENTILE OR ABOVE. IF AT BETWEEN THE 90TH & 94TH PERCENTILE THEN IT CAN BE DESIGNATED II+.

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GRADE III: INTELLECTUALLY AVERAGE – IF SCORED IS BETWEEN THE 25TH AND 75TH PERCENTILE. IT MAY BE DESIGNATED III+ IF ABOVE THE 50TH PERCENTILE AND III- IF IT IS BELOW.

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GRADE IV: BELOW AVERAGE: IF SCORE LIES AT OR BELOW THE 25TH PERCENTILE. IT MAY BE DESIGNATED IV- IF IT LIES AT OR BELOW THE 10TH PERCENTILE.

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GRADE V: INTELLECTUALLY IMPAIRED. IF A SCORE LIES AT OR BELOW THE 5TH PERCENTILE FOR THAT AGE GROUP.