Manual for Raven's Progressive Matrices and Vocabulary Scales By J Raven, | C Raven and J H Court Section | General Overview 1998 Edition Intcoducing Parallel Versions of the CPM and SPM together with a more powerful Version of the SPM (SPM Plus)‘Etnric and Socio-economic Issues that many people Iving in presliterate soceties such as Affica were attending to, and perceiving the circles, squares triangles, and lines whi people were nat recognised as representations of people”, which indicated thet, in the abserce cofstimulation, the development of logical thinking tends to remain latent or to develop somewhat later in Ife. Given this evidence that there are cultures in which the test simply does rot work, we must consider the possiblity that the diferences between scores obtained by members of different ethnic groups withn Western society could be explained in simlartemms. Extensive evidence bearing on the question of what causes the differences between ethric groups in societies with a literate tradition is presented in the Research Supplements to this Manual. Nevertheless, its useful to summarise the results here, particuarly because it has sometimes been claimed that the Progressive Matrices are "culture fair". We will present as much evidence as is needed to show the ways in which the claim i, and is not, jusiied One of the mest striking findings is that, despite the dramatic increase in ‘overall scores with ttre, there is remarkable similarity between the noms ‘obtained in many different cultures at any given point in time. For example, the norms obtained in the 1980s in Great Britain, East and West Germany, Slovakia, ‘Australia, New Zealand, and Urban Mainland China, and for Whites in the United States of America, are very similar in doth mean and dispersion. However, some groups do lag behind these intemational norms. These induce Brazil, Ireland, Puerto Rico, and Blacks and Native Americans in ‘America Owen” has shown that there are enormous Black/White (3 standard deviation) and ColouredWhite (7 SD). but not Indian/White, differences in South Africa. Extremely low norms have also emerged from a study of an isolated area in the mountains of Peru. n all countries, the norms for crldrenprivileged socio-economic backgrounds and from rural areas are lower than others, Of particular interest is 2 dference between Dutch-speaking land French-speaking Belgians that stayed approximately constant from 1957 to 1968. ‘The explanation most commonly offered for these differences is that the +test does not engage the concerns of people from disadvantaged backgrounds and demands thought processes which are unfamiliar to them. itis, however, difficult to reconcile this explanation with the wide variety of scores that are attained by people from all backgrounds, and! indeed from most families. More seriously sil, this explanation falls to account forthe fact that the test scales in the came way (je exhibits the same rank order of item difficulties) among people from a wide variety of cultural backgrounds. Thus, athough there are miner differences between the scaling in the United Kingdom, New Zedland, ‘Australia, and Slovakia, the average correlation between item difficulties estab- lished separately in these countries is.99. Within the UK and US, the correla- tion between item difficulties established seperately within different socio~ economic and ethnic groups varies between .98 and. |,00. Owen’ has reported similar results for Blacks, Coloureds, and Whites in South Africa. The test is therefore working in the same way in al these cultural and ethnic groups. IFit were not, the items would not display such invariant difficulty indices Furthermore, it has the same predictive validity for a range of criteria within each of these groups. It cannot, then be true in any general sense that the test is "unfamilar to the way of thought" of people from any of these backgrounds. However, it must be added that there are many individuals whose scores do not reflect their true abilties. ‘As we have already seen, the most probable explanation for the changes over time lies in an improvement in nutrition, welfore, and hygiene. The fact that the difference in scores between socio-economic ard ethnic groups within the US runs parallel to differences in birth weight, infant mertalty, and early chilchood illness, suggests a similar origin for these differences. A number of ther studies? support this hypothesis: Qualty of det is related to birth weight, infant mortality, RPM scores, and height both within and between socio- economic groups — and feeding people vtarine erhances thelr eductive (but ‘ot reproductive) abiities whether these are measured with the RPM or other tests. However, it is important to note thet itis not just a question of rectifying stunted growth It is not only short people who have got taller as height has increased, $0, to0, have tall people. Nevertheless, whist the nutritional hypo- thesis makes sense of many of the ethnic differences, including the apparentlyrapidly diminishing Hispanic/White diference in the Urited States, it would explain why many of the differences have been maintain increasing scores ofall roups. it does not explain the continuing df between French and Dutch speaking Belgians. This particular di attributable to differences in child-rearing practices. “Tie iterances bebrces scores obtained by chicken Rane economic backgrounds are much smaller than those between thel Genetic processes tend to bring extreme characteristics closer to the population as we pass from parents to children. However, of greater from a psychological point of view is that some poorly understood select alocative social process then sorts the children cut to reproduce the differences between aduk socio-economic groups. This process operatesi societies with a wide variety of socio-economic structures. Frkowska- Mankiewicz and Czarkowsk provide a dramatic demonstration ofits op within Warsaw suburbs accommadating people of very diferent saciox economic status However, the process can be accelerated or retailed by social and educational arangerents. For example, Hope" has shovithat ‘takes Americans 34 years to achieve the degree of association. between: pationa status and Intelligence that the Scots achieve in six — dren are || years old, In both countries seme 60% of social mobility is, end, sttisticaly accounted for by “inteligence’™ Similar social processes have been observed in areas other than the intelec ‘wal In 1959, Kohn® demonstrated that people in different occupational groups espouse very different values. The riginaly, responsibilty, and initiative while Working-class" people appear to be more inter ested in obedience, instruction, and sirict rules. Kohn believed these differences to be a product of occupational experience, but the author has demonstrated a ‘wide variation in the values of children from similar backgrounds. and also that adolescents’ values are more characteristic of the groups they will enter than of ‘those from whicn they have come, Kohn, Slomczynski and Schoenbach® have provided a striking demonstration of the allocative social process among adults. But the most striking results remain those obtained by Kinsey! in 1948 Adolescents! senual behaviour and attitudes are characteristic of the groups they vill enter rather than of those from which they have come. Iti diffeult to see how ths could have arisen through discussion, explicit teaching. or any form of modeling, It seems that there must be an important if poorly understood, social sorting process whereby people tend to end up working with those who share ‘heir intellectual abilities, ané their social and occupational values.