A Lithuanian standartization of the Raven’s Coloured Progressive Matrices

Abstract

This study established for the first time a Lithuanian standardisation of the Raven’s Coloured Progressive Matrices (CPM) a nonverbal instrument widely used in the world to assess productive abilities of young children. A representative sample of 1067 Lithuanian children between ages six and eleventh was tested after selecting a stratified sample of schools/kindergartens by place of residence and language of instruction in year 2004. Within schools, sampling was carried out randomly within age and gender groups including special needs children receiving education services within mainstream schools. The sample for age 6 included children who were not attending school as well as those who were at school or in kindergartens. Social demographic and academic information on children was gathered using parents questionnaire. Means and Standard deviations were generated at half a year intervals between age 5 years and 9 months to 11 years 2 months. Based on these calculations, smoothed percentile scores by age were derived. Data analysis based on methods of internal consistency, item analysis and comparison of data between different groups of children showed adequate psychometric properties of the Raven’s CPM. The variables of gender, age and SES were used for the data analysis. The gender differences in CPM scores were minimal and not significant. The significant correlation between age and CPM means confirmed expectation that raw scores of children should increase with age. Factors affecting CPM results were place of residence and level of parent’s education. The means of CPM scores of children groups living in different areas showed that rural children were lower than the group living in the big towns. A progressive increase in CPM score means according to parents educational level was obtained. These data suggest looking at SES variables in home and school environment that may affect the opportunity to develop child’s cognitive abilities. Using current data the CPM appears to be reliable and valid instrument for use in screening Lithuanian children.