An Examination of the Adult age Differences on the Raven's Advanced Progressive Matrices

Abstract

The purpose of the current project was to examine the nature of the age-related differences on the Raven's Advanced Progressive Matrices (APM). Three components were hypothesized to be involved in correctly solving the APM problems. These included a rule-identification component, a rule-application component (involving a one-rule spatial transformation), and a rule-coordination component. The project was designed to examine the influence of each of the hypothesized components on the age-related variance on the APM. Two tests presumed to measure each hypothesized component were presented to 183 adults between the ages of 21 and 83. Hierarchical regression analyses indicated that although all of the hypothesized components accounted for a significant amount of the variance on the APM (approximately 50% each), only performance on the tasks measuring rule application accounted for a unique proportion of the age-related variance on the APM. Implications of the results in regards to following symbolic instructions in assembly of objects and in driving are discussed.