Raven Standard Progressive Matrices

Abbreviation: SPM

In the mid-1930s, John C. Raven, a student of Charles Spearman, constructed the “Progressive Matrices” as part of his Master's Thesis, which we know today as the Standard Progressive Matrices (SPM)¹⁾. The aim of the test construction was to cover the entire range of intellectual development from childhood to old age. At the same time, the test was to be as independent as possible of language, education, nationality, or health status.

The items consist of incomplete geometric figures or patterns, which must be completed from six or eight response alternatives (multiple choice), respectively, so that a recognized construction pattern is logically continued. Figure 1 shows an example of an item that corresponds in its construction principle to SPM items.

Figure 1: Example of a matrix item. The matching piece must be selected.

The SPM consist of 5 series (labeled A to E) of 12 such items each, with increasing difficulty. The solution of the first item of each series is usually immediately apparent, especially in the first four series A to D. In the later items of each series, more difficult problems are then presented. They always build on what was required in the preceding items.

The SPM have remained practically unchanged since the first edition in 1938. The still current Manual for Raven's Progressive Matrices and Vocabulary Scales²⁾ indicates that there were only two small changes to the items. In 1947, a correction was made to the eighth item of Series B, and for the 1956 edition, both the items themselves and the response options were rearranged, but not the position of the correct answer.

In the upper intelligence range, the SPM no longer measure very precisely. In the course of the cross-cultural rise in intelligence test scores³⁾, a clear ceiling effect was observed for the SPM in adolescents and younger adults. For this reason, the SPM-Plus was developed at the same time as a parallel version of the SPM corresponding to the classic 1956 form, which again allows improved differentiation in the upper intelligence range. For the usual clinical purposes, differentiation in the normal and subnormal range is more important than in the upper intelligence range. In this respect, the differentiating power of the SPM is usually sufficient for clinical purposes.

The SPM are used with both children and adults. Within TDB2Online, only the application in adults is covered.

Frank Gierschmann wrote a quite detailed review of the Progressive Matrices in 2003.⁴⁾ The book is still available.

For a long time, the three versions of the Progressive Matrices were self-published. After J.C. Raven's death, his sons initially continued the publishing house (J. C. Raven Ltd.) under the leadership of the eldest son, John Raven. Under John Raven's supervision, the most extensive norming studies in adults to that date took place in Scotland and the USA in the late 1980s. In the mid to late 1990s, a comprehensive documentation of Raven's tests appeared in 7 volumes. Of these, Part 1 (general overview)⁵⁾, Part 3 (Standard Progressive Matrices)⁶⁾, and Part 7 (research data and references)⁷⁾ are relevant for the SPM. At the beginning of the century, the Psychological Corporation in Texas, which by this time already belonged to Harcourt, took over the family publishing house including all rights to the tests. The test division of Harcourt was later taken over by Pearson Assessment, which currently (October 2012) publishes the English manuals without substantial changes.

In Germany as well, the SPM have changed test publisher several times. A first edition with a German standardization for children by Kratzmeier and Horn appeared in 1979 from Beltz Test, and a (slightly) expanded second edition in 1988.⁸⁾ A further German edition with new norms (but likewise predominantly for children and adolescents) appeared in 1998 under the editorship of Heller, Kratzmeier, and Lengfelder.⁹⁾

Almost simultaneously (since 1998), Swets Test Service in Frankfurt began to publish the complete English manuals and the three matrices tests in German. The SPM appeared there in the adaptation by Bulheller and Häcker¹⁰⁾ based on the British edition of 1998.¹¹⁾ The German norms published in this edition were collected with the SPM Plus, not with the classic SPM. However, there is a conversion table with the help of which SPM-Plus raw scores can be converted into SPM raw scores (and vice versa). Mainly adolescents between 14 and 18 years of age were studied, only a few students, and no non-student adult sample.

Currently, the German versions that first appeared at Swets Test Service, or their new editions, are published by the legal successor, Pearson Assessment & Information GmbH, in Frankfurt. They can be obtained directly from there or through the Testzentrale (test distributor) in Germany or Switzerland.

To administer the classic SPM, one definitely needs the (classic) SPM test booklet, which contains the five test series (A, B, C, D, E) of 12 items each, and the (classic) SPM answer sheets. In the current version, these are self-duplicating and thus facilitate counting the raw scores. At least a cursory familiarity with the content of the German SPM manual¹²⁾ is necessary, even if it is somewhat laborious to read. In addition, the test authors recommend reading the basic manual for Raven's matrices tests¹³⁾.

J. C. Raven's rights to his test were passed on from publisher to publisher and today lie internationally with Pearson Assessment, represented in Germany by Pearson Assessment & Information GmbH in Frankfurt.

The current manuals for Raven's matrices tests^{14) 15)} recommend administering the SPM as an untimed power test. The test can be administered both individually and as a group test (although the group size, especially in clinical applications, should be limited to a few persons). Administration takes about 45 minutes on average.

Administering the SPM with a binding time limit, which does not allow some examinees to finish the test, would lead to an uneven and invalid score distribution. The reason is that under such test conditions, some examinees spend a lot of time solving the difficult items from the first series, while others skip these items and considerably increase their scores by solving the easier items from the higher series.

For all versions of Raven's Progressive Matrices, there is only one raw score, the number of correct solutions. For the SPM, this number ranges from 0 to 60.

see detailed test documentation

From the beginning, norms for the Raven tests were given as percentile ranks. This takes into account the fact that the relationship between raw scores and IQ scores is not linear. In the lower performance ranges, solving one additional pattern is associated with a smaller IQ increase than in the upper performance ranges. On the basis of the available percentile rank norms, conversion into linear performance scores via the relationship between percentile ranks and units of the normal distribution is formally simple.

see detailed test documentation

see detailed test documentation

see detailed test documentation

see detailed test documentation