Advanced Progressive Matrices Scores Research Articles

Lifespan normative data (18-89 years) for Raven's Advanced Progressive Matrices Set I.

Raven's Advanced Progressive Matrices (APM) Set I is a validated and brief test of fluid intelligence, ideal for use in busy clinical settings. However, there is a dearth of normative data allowing an accurate interpretation of APM scores. To address this, we present normative data from across the adult lifespan (18-89 years) for the APM Set I. Data are presented in five age cohorts (total N= 352), including two older adult cohorts (65-79 years and 80-89 years), which allows age-standardized assessment. We also present data from a validated measure of premorbid intellectual ability, which was absent from previous standardizations of longer forms of the APM. In line with previous findings, a striking age-related decline was noted, beginning relatively early in adulthood and most marked amongst lower-scoring individuals. Older adults did not demonstrate difficulty with specific test items or make an increased proportion of specific errors. Sex was not a significant predictor of performance. The data set is of particular use in the neuropsychological assessment of older adults, given the known susceptibility of fluid intelligence to both the effects of normal ageing and acquired brain injury in older age. The results are discussed in light of theories of neurological ageing.

The Associations between Results in Different Domains of Cognitive and Psychomotor Abilities Measured in Medical Students.

We aimed to investigate the associations between intelligence quotient test scores obtained using the Raven's Advanced Progressive Matrices (APM) and psychomotor testing using the Complex Reactionmeter Drenovac (CRD) test battery, while taking into account previous theoretical approaches recognizing intelligent behavior as the cumulative result of a general biological speed factor reflected in the reaction time for perceptual detections and motor decisions. A total of 224 medical students at the University of Split School of Medicine were recruited. Their IQ scores were assessed using Raven's APM, while the computerized tests of CRD-series were used for testing the reaction time of perception to visual stimulus (CRD311), psychomotor limbs coordination task (CRD411), and solving simple arithmetic operations (CRD11). The total test-solving (TTST) and the minimum single-task-solving (MinT) times were analyzed. On the CRD11 test, task-solving times were shorter in students with higher APM scores (r = -0.48 for TTST and r = -0.44 for MinT; p < 0.001 for both). Negative associations between task-solving times and APM scores were reported on CRD311 (r = -0.30 for TTST and r = -0.33 for MinT, p < 0.001 for both). Negative associations between task-solving times in CRD411 and APM scores (r = -0.40 for TTST and r = -0.30 for MinT, p < 0.001 for both) were found. Faster reaction time in psychomotor limbs coordination tasks, the reaction time of perception to visual stimulus, and the reaction time of solving simple arithmetic operations were associated with a higher APM score in medical students, indicating the importance of mental speed in intelligence test performance. However, executive system functions, such as attention, planning, and goal weighting, might also impact cognitive abilities and should be considered in future research.

Multimodal Brain Signal Complexity Predicts Human Intelligence.

Spontaneous brain activity builds the foundation for human cognitive processing during external demands. Neuroimaging studies based on functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) identified specific characteristics of spontaneous (intrinsic) brain dynamics to be associated with individual differences in general cognitive ability, i.e., intelligence. However, fMRI research is inherently limited by low temporal resolution, thus, preventing conclusions about neural fluctuations within the range of milliseconds. Here, we used resting-state electroencephalographical (EEG) recordings from 144 healthy adults to test whether individual differences in intelligence (Raven's Advanced Progressive Matrices scores) can be predicted from the complexity of temporally highly resolved intrinsic brain signals. We compared different operationalizations of brain signal complexity (multiscale entropy, Shannon entropy, Fuzzy entropy, and specific characteristics of microstates) regarding their relation to intelligence. The results indicate that associations between brain signal complexity measures and intelligence are of small effect sizes (r ∼ 0.20) and vary across different spatial and temporal scales. Specifically, higher intelligence scores were associated with lower complexity in local aspects of neural processing, and less activity in task-negative brain regions belonging to the default-mode network. Finally, we combined multiple measures of brain signal complexity to show that individual intelligence scores can be significantly predicted with a multimodal model within the sample (10-fold cross-validation) as well as in an independent sample (external replication, N = 57). In sum, our results highlight the temporal and spatial dependency of associations between intelligence and intrinsic brain dynamics, proposing multimodal approaches as promising means for future neuroscientific research on complex human traits.

Strategy use moderates the relation between working memory capacity and fluid intelligence: A combined approach

This study investigated whether the strength of the link between working memory capacity and fluid intelligence differs as people use different strategies to solve fluid intelligence problems. A sample of 214 university students completed three complex span tasks measuring working memory capacity and Raven's Advanced Progressive Matrices (APM) assessing fluid intelligence. Strategic behavior was measured by both the strategy questionnaire and the eye-tracking technique. Latent profile analysis yielded three groups of participants using constructive matching, response elimination, and a third strategy, respectively. Participants adopting constructive matching spent proportionally more time on the matrix area but less time on the response bank, and exhibited longer latency to first toggle and higher rate of toggling than those using response elimination and the other strategy, consistent with the results obtained from the questionnaire data. Furthermore, strategy use moderated the relationship between working memory capacity and APM performance. The link between working memory capacity and APM scores was significantly higher for participants using eliminative strategies including response elimination (r = 0.63) and the other strategy (r = 0.54) than that for those using constructive matching (r = 0.27). Our findings suggest that the extent to which working memory relates to performance on APM varies as a function of strategy use.

Pupil Diameter Tracks the Exploration-Exploitation Trade-off during Analogical Reasoning and Explains Individual Differences in Fluid Intelligence.

The ability to adaptively shift between exploration and exploitation control states is critical for optimizing behavioral performance. Converging evidence from primate electrophysiology and computational neural modeling has suggested that this ability may be mediated by the broad norepinephrine projections emanating from the locus coeruleus (LC) [Aston-Jones, G., & Cohen, J. D. An integrative theory of locus coeruleus-norepinephrine function: Adaptive gain and optimal performance. Annual Review of Neuroscience, 28, 403-450, 2005]. There is also evidence that pupil diameter covaries systematically with LC activity. Although imperfect and indirect, this link makes pupillometry a useful tool for studying the locus coeruleus norepinephrine system in humans and in high-level tasks. Here, we present a novel paradigm that examines how the pupillary response during exploration and exploitation covaries with individual differences in fluid intelligence during analogical reasoning on Raven's Advanced Progressive Matrices. Pupillometry was used as a noninvasive proxy for LC activity, and concurrent think-aloud verbal protocols were used to identify exploratory and exploitative solution periods. This novel combination of pupillometry and verbal protocols from 40 participants revealed a decrease in pupil diameter during exploitation and an increase during exploration. The temporal dynamics of the pupillary response was characterized by a steep increase during the transition to exploratory periods, sustained dilation for many seconds afterward, and followed by gradual return to baseline. Moreover, the individual differences in the relative magnitude of pupillary dilation accounted for 16% of the variance in Advanced Progressive Matrices scores. Assuming that pupil diameter is a valid index of LC activity, these results establish promising preliminary connections between the literature on locus coeruleus norepinephrine-mediated cognitive control and the literature on analogical reasoning and fluid intelligence.

Exploration of the Raven APM–National Adult Reading Test Discrepancy as a Measure of Intellectual Decline in Older Persons

Previous studies have shown that the discrepancy between performance on “fluid” and “crystallized” intelligence measures may serve as an indicator for intellectual decline. The validity of this procedure in older persons is unknown. The present study developed a multiple regression equation, to predict the Raven Advanced Progressive Matrices (APM) score from the National Adult Reading Test (NART) score and demographic variables in a large sample of healthy older persons (n = 270). The discrepancy between the predicted and observed Raven APM scores was transformed into a percentile distribution as an indicator of intellectual decline, which can be used in clinical practice. The validity of the procedure was further examined by comparing the proportion of persons with a significant decline (at the −1 and −1.65 SD level) between two older patient samples (87 patients with cerebral stroke and 387 patients with diabetes mellitus) by means of χ2 tests. There was a significantly higher rate of intellectual decline at the −1 SD (“below average”) and −1.65 SD (“impaired”) cutoff levels for patients with stroke compared with patients with diabetes (stroke, 34% and 14%; diabetes, 16% and 5%, p < .05). These findings suggest that the Raven APM–NART discrepancy may be a useful measure of intellectual decline in older persons.

Improving general intelligence with a nutrient-based pharmacological intervention

Cognitive enhancing substances such as amphetamine and modafinil have become popular in recent years to improve acute cognitive performance particularly in environments in which enhanced cognition or intelligence is required. Nutraceutical nootropics, which are natural substances that have the ability to bring about acute or chronic changes in cognition have also been gaining popularity in a range of settings and applications including the workplace, driving and in the amelioration of age related cognitive decline. Huperzine A, Vinpocetine, Acetyl- l-carnitine, Rhodiola Rosea and Alpha-lipoic Acid are popular nutritional supplements that have shown promising benefits in improving a range of biological (e.g., blood flow, anti-inflammatory, anti-oxidant, and direct neurotransmitter effects) and cognitive processes from in vitro, animal and human clinical research. We report here the first human randomized clinical trial for cognition in which we administer a combination of Huperzine A, Vinpocetine, Acetyl- l-carnitine, R. Rosea and Alpha-lipoic acid (called Ceretrophin) vs placebo. Sixty participants (40 females and 20 males, with a mean age of 45.4 years, SD = 12.6) completed either the odd or even items from the Raven Advanced Progressive Matrices (APM) at baseline and the opposite odd or even items at week 4 after consuming either the combination nootropic or placebo. A significant study visit (time) × treatment condition interaction was found: F (1, 57) = 7.279, p = 0.009, partial η 2 = .113, with paired samples t-tests revealing a significant improvement in mean APM score from baseline to retest (week 4) ( t(34) = − 4.045, p < .001) for the Ceretrophin™ group. Improvements in APM scores could be attributed to the active intervention over the placebo, indicating that the treatment improved general intelligence. Implications for improving our understanding of the biological basis of intelligence and pharmacologically improving human cognition are discussed.

The effect of practice on Raven's Advanced Progressive Matrices

Sixty-seven participants (39 men and 28 women), ranging in age from 26 to 79 years, were administered Raven's Advanced Progressive Matrices (APM) on three occasions. Although total APM scores were found to be highly reliable across the three occasions, the reliabilities of most individual items were extremely low. A single-factor model remained a borderline adequate fit (explaining approximately 20% of the variance) for the interitem correlation matrix on all three occasions. Total APM scores increased significantly across the three occasions (approximately two items per occasion). Improvements in total score across the occasions happened within a context of subjects changing both correct and incorrect responses from the previous occasion. The number of items left unanswered was found to be unrelated to both APM score on any given occasion and the amount of gain in score made across occasions. These findings suggest that the improvements in performance were not based on the acquisition of a strategy design to respond to more items or on the retention of item-specific information, but rather, the improvement reflected learning, something common to the types of items found in the APM.

Human performance on visually presented Traveling Salesman problems.

Little research has been carried out on human performance in optimization problems, such as the Traveling Salesman problem (TSP). Studies by Polivanova (1974, Voprosy Psikhologii, 4, 41-51) and by MacGregor and Ormerod (1996, Perception & Psychophysics, 58, 527-539) suggest that: (1) the complexity of solutions to visually presented TSPs depends on the number of points on the convex hull; and (2) the perception of optimal structure is an innate tendency of the visual system, not subject to individual differences. Results are reported from two experiments. In the first, measures of the total length and completion speed of pathways, and a measure of path uncertainty were compared with optimal solutions produced by an elastic net algorithm and by several heuristic methods. Performance was also compared under instructions to draw the shortest or the most attractive pathway. In the second, various measures of performance were compared with scores on Raven's advanced progressive matrices (APM). The number of points on the convex hull did not determine the relative optimality of solutions, although both this factor and the total number of points influenced solution speed and path uncertainty. Subjects' solutions showed appreciable individual differences, which had a strong correlation with APM scores. The relation between perceptual organization and the process of solving visually presented TSPs is briefly discussed, as is the potential of optimization for providing a conceptual framework for the study of intelligence.

Processing speed, attention, and intelligence: Effects of spatial attention on decision time in high and low IQ subjects

Mental-speed theories of intelligence (Spearman, The abilities of man, 1927; Lemmon, Archives of Psychology, 15, 5–38, 1927–1928; Jensen, Journal of Social and Biological Structures, 3, 103–122, 1980; Jensen, Speed of information processing and intelligence, 1987) are challenged by the finding that, in some methods, bright subjects do not appear to process information at an increased speed. The present experiment was designed to explore new RT measures which might relate more strongly to IQ while possessing a clear theoretical relationship to biological theories of intelligence. One direct measure of information processing speed is the rate at which choice reaction time ( RT) increases with increasing stimulus information content ( RT slope). While RT slope is a critical variable in mental-speed models of intelligence, the results of several experiments, since Jensen proposed his model, suggest that slope does not correlate strongly with intelligence. We investigated the possibility that spatial attention affects the relationship between RT and IQ in the traditional Jensen paradigm. Thirty-five subjects performed an RT task with two and four choice stimuli presented in narrow and wide spatial configurations. Correlations between Raven's Advanced Progressive Matrices (APM) scores and RT were in line with previous reports of a moderate negative relationship between IQ and RT. However, a much stronger effect was found in the relative speed in the narrow and wide spatial display conditions. The wide minus narrow RT difference in the two-choice condition correlated 0.71 with APM scores. This result suggests that the processing speed advantage of high IQ subjects is best revealed under optimal attentional conditions. It is suggested that this result supports the speed of processing model of intelligence. Paradoxically, the traditional Jensen paradigm confounds the high choice orders with increased spatial attention demands, thus artifactually increasing the RT slope in high, but not in low, IQ subjects. Explicit control of spatial attention requirements indicates that individual differences in intelligence are substantially underpinned by differences in the speed of information processing mechanisms which, in high IQ subjects, require focused attention if they are to be deployed adequately.

Smoking and raven IQ

Nicotine has recently been shown to enhance measures of information processing speed including the decision time (DT) component of simple and choice reaction time and the string length measure of evoked potential waveform complexity. Both (DT and string length) have been previously demonstrated to correlate with performance on standard intelligence tests (IQ). We therefore hypothesised that nicotine is acting to improve intellectual performance on the elementary information processing correlates of IQ. In the current experiment we tested this hypothesis using the Raven Advanced Progressive Matrices (APM) test. APM scores were significantly higher in the smoking session compared to the non-smoking session, suggesting that nicotine acts to enhance physiological processes underlying performance on intellectual tasks.

Dynamic administration of a general intelligence test

The benefits of dynamic testing are thought to include; (a) a reduction in strategic variance, accompanied by (b) a test score increase for “disadvantaged” subjects. Sometimes forgotten, however, is that these accomplishments are illusory unless they support a specified goal (e.g., better validity). In the present study, we examine the benefits of dynamic test administration with the Raven's Advanced Progressive Matrices (APM) test of general intelligence. The results indicate that, while APM scores were significantly increased by dynamic procedures, important criteria such as reliability and construct validity were not enhanced. We conclude that the choice of dynamic procedures depends on both the ability construct and the purpose of testing, and should be justified on a case-by-case basis.