Generation speed in Raven's progressive matrices test

Abstract

In this paper, we investigate the role of response fluency on a well-known intelligence test, Raven's Advanced Progressive Matrices (APM) test. Finding rules that govern the items is critical in solving this test. Finding these rules is conceptualized as sampling rules from a (statistical) rule distribution until the correct one is attained. Response fluency is then seen as generation speed, or the speed at which a person generates (samples) rules from this distribution. We develop a test that isolates this speed of sampling variable, and a method to check whether this variable was adequately isolated. The score on this test is then compared with performance on the APM test. It is found that the speed at which people sample from such distributions is an important variable in solving APM items.