Matrices Test Research Articles

Effects of different types of physical activity on the cognitive functions and attention in older people: A randomized controlled study

This study aimed to evaluate the effects of different types of exercise on cognition. Eighty participants, 32 males and 48 females, aged 66.96±11.73, volunteered for this study. The participants were randomly divided into the four following groups: Resistance Group (RG; n=20), involved in high intensity strength training; Cardiovascular Group (CVG; n=20), involved in high intensity cardiovascular training; Postural Group (PG; n=20) involved in low intensity training, based on postural and balance exercises; and Control Group (CG; n=20). Exercises were performed over the course of 12weeks. All participants were tested for their cognitive functions pre- and post-intervention using the following neurocognitive tests: the Attentive Matrices Test, Raven's Progressive Matrices, Stroop Color and Word Interference Test, Trail Making Test and Drawing Copy Test. Statistical analysis showed that the CVG group improved significantly in the Attentive Matrices Test and Raven's Progressive Matrices (both p=<0.05), whereas the RG group improved in Drawing Copy Test time (p=<0.05). These results confirm that different types of exercise interventions have unique effects on cognition. Cardiovascular training is effective in improving performance attentive and analytic tasks, whereas resistance training is effective in improving praxis. Further investigation is necessary to evaluate the combination of the two exercise types in order to ascertain if their respective effects can be summated when performed together.

Inter-channel Correlation in the EEG Activity During a Cognitive Problem Solving Task with an Increasing Difficulty Questions Progression

Correlation analysis allows detecting the degree of relatedness between two variables. Even when correlation does not mean necessarily causation, in a time series, it indicates the degree of synchrony of two comparing variables and in many aspects renders similar information compared with cross-coherence analysis of the electroencephalographic signal. In this work we explore rather simple statistical features to mine into deeper underlying aspects of the functional organization of the brain during performing an intelligence test. We studied time length duration taken to solve a series of questions ordered with increasing difficulty and the correlation values reached by tine series data synchronization between the 14 EEG channels placed in the subject's scalp, during the mental task. The intelligence test consisted in an abbreviated (15 questions) version of the Raven Matrices test. Results coming from the correlation analysis showed relevant information about functional organization strategies of the brain solving a cognitive problem, as well as good discrimination for inter-individual differences in the way inter-channel correlation values distribute differently for each subject around central values of R.

There is no coherent evidence for a bilingual advantage in executive processing

Three studies compared bilinguals to monolinguals on 15 indicators of executive processing (EP). Most of the indicators compare a neutral or congruent baseline to a condition that should require EP. For each of the measures there was no main effect of group and a highly significant main effect of condition. The critical marker for a bilingual advantage, the Group×Condition interaction, was significant for only one indicator, but in a pattern indicative of a bilingual disadvantage. Tasks include antisaccade (Study 1), Simon (Studies 1–3), flanker (Study 3), and color-shape switching (Studies 1–3). The two groups performed identically on the Raven’s Advanced Matrices test (Study 3). Analyses on the combined data selecting subsets that are precisely matched on parent’s educational level or that include only highly fluent bilinguals reveal exactly the same pattern of results. A problem reconfirmed by the present study is that effects assumed to be indicators of a specific executive process in one task (e.g., inhibitory control in the flanker task) frequently do not predict individual differences in that same indicator on a related task (e.g., inhibitory control in the Simon task). The absence of consistent cross-task correlations undermines the interpretation that these are valid indicators of domain-general abilities. In a final discussion the underlying rationale for hypothesizing bilingual advantages in executive processing based on the special linguistic demands placed on bilinguals is interrogated.

Cognitive Demand and Reminders Effect on Time-Based Prospective Memory in Amnesic Mild Cognitive Impairment (AMCI) and in Healthy Elderly

Individuals with-Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI) often complain of difficulty remembering to carry out intended actions. We investigated the relative efficacy of a different reminder in performing a time-based Prospective Memory (PM) task. The PM performance of 24 participants with amnesic Mild Cognitive Impairment (AMCI) has been compared with that of 24 healthy controls. As ongoing task, samples of the Attentive Matrices Test were used. In the PM task subjects were requested to write an “X” every three minutes during a 9 minutes period. Participants received the task consisting either in a low demand condition (checking number “5”) or in a high demand condition (checking numbers “1”, “4”, “9”). In order to be as punctual as possible, participants were asked to simultaneously write the “X” at task time expiration, using a digital clock. Time monitoring was recorded. Reminder occurring was manipulated in that participants could receive critical, accidental or completely absent reminder. As expected, high cognitive demand was negatively correlated with PM performance and time monitoring. Unexpectedly, all the participants did not benefit from the critical reminder. These findings demonstrated, from a behavioral perspective, that Working Memory (WM) and PM processes are not based on the same memory system and PM may require WM resources at high demand.

Working memory training does not improve intelligence in healthy young adults

Jaeggi and her colleagues claimed that they were able to improve fluid intelligence by training working memory. Subjects who trained their working memory on a dual n-back task for a period of time showed significant improvements in working memory span tasks and fluid intelligence tests such as the Raven's Progressive Matrices and the Bochumer Matrices Test after training compared to those without training. The current study aimed to replicate and extend the original study in a well-controlled experiment that could explain the cause or causes of such transfer if indeed the case. There were a total of 93 participants who completed the study, and they were assigned to one of three groups—passive control group, active control group and experimental group. Half of the participants were assigned to the 8-day condition and the other half to the 20-day condition. All participants completed a battery of tests at pre- and post-tests that consisted of short timed tests, a complex working memory span and a matrix reasoning task. Although participants' performance on the training task improved, results from the current study did not suggest any significant improvement in the mental abilities tested, especially fluid intelligence and working memory capacity, after training for 8days or 20days. This does not support the notion that increasing one's working memory capacity by training and practice could transfer to improvement on fluid intelligence as asserted by Jaeggi and her colleagues.

The performance of the Congruence Among Distance Matrices (CADM) test in phylogenetic analysis.

BackgroundCADM is a statistical test used to estimate the level of Congruence Among Distance Matrices. It has been shown in previous studies to have a correct rate of type I error and good power when applied to dissimilarity matrices and to ultrametric distance matrices. Contrary to most other tests of incongruence used in phylogenetic analysis, the null hypothesis of the CADM test assumes complete incongruence of the phylogenetic trees instead of congruence. In this study, we performed computer simulations to assess the type I error rate and power of the test. It was applied to additive distance matrices representing phylogenies and to genetic distance matrices obtained from nucleotide sequences of different lengths that were simulated on randomly generated trees of varying sizes, and under different evolutionary conditions.ResultsOur results showed that the test has an accurate type I error rate and good power. As expected, power increased with the number of objects (i.e., taxa), the number of partially or completely congruent matrices and the level of congruence among distance matrices.ConclusionsBased on our results, we suggest that CADM is an excellent candidate to test for congruence and, when present, to estimate its level in phylogenomic studies where numerous genes are analysed simultaneously.

Differential effects of intelligence, perceptual speed and age on growth in attentional speed and accuracy

The study investigates the effects of intelligence, perceptual speed and age on intraindividual growth in attentional speed and attentional accuracy over the course of a 6-minute testing session. A sample of 193 subjects completed the Advanced Progressive Matrices and the Vienna Matrices Test representing intelligence, the tests Alertness and GoNogo representing simple perceptual processing, and the Frankfurt Adaptive Concentration-Performance Test, a measure of executive attention. Growth curve modeling demonstrated an increase of attentional speed and accuracy performance following linear and logarithmic trajectories, respectively. For attentional speed, intelligence significantly predicted baseline performance, but not performance growth, while for perceptual speed the reverse pattern of results held. For attentional accuracy, intelligence did not have an effect, neither on baseline performance nor on performance growth, whereas perceptual speed influenced both baseline performance and performance growth. Thus, intelligence was not associated with the ability to learn to perform the attention task quickly and accurately. Age differences were mainly related to baseline performance. Results indicate that the concurrent performance aspects, speed and accuracy, are distinct in the shape of growth and in the prediction of growth curve parameters by intelligence, perceptual speed, and age.

Why Do Deaf Children Score Differently on Performance vs. Motor-Reduced Nonverbal Intelligence Tests?

Children who are deaf and hard of hearing (DC) and children with normal hearing (HC) have similar Performance IQs. However, DC score lower than HC on motor-reduced nonverbal intelligence tests (e.g., figural matrices tests). The difference between motor-reduced and motor-intensive (i.e., performance) nonverbal tests may be affected by psychomotor speed. This issue was investigated by comparing DC and HC on motor-intensive and motor-reduced nonverbal intelligence tests and on tests of psychomotor speed. Results show similar WISC-III Performance IQs for DC and HC and lower motor-reduced scores (from the Matrix Analogies Test-Short Form) for DC. This similar performance of HC and DC on an experimental motor-intensive nonverbal test, and on psychomotor speed measures, suggests that speed does not influence intelligence test results. We suspect that impulsivity, not speed per se, leads to the difference between motor-intensive and motor-reduced nonverbal test scores.

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.

Conditions for invariance of the multivariate versions of grubbs’ test and bartlett’s test under a general dependency structure

This paper generalizes a result by Stadje (1984) by deriving conditions for which a general dependency structure for multivariate observations, given in Pavur (1987), yields a positive definite covariance structure. This general dependency structure allows the sample covariance matrix to be distributed as a constant times a Wishart random matrix. It is then demonstrated that the maximum squared-radii test and a test for equal population covariance matrices have null distributions which remain unchanged when the new general dependency structure, rather than the usual independence structure, for the vector observations, is assumed. Moreover, under a general dependency structure for which the population covariance matrices are unequal, it is shown that the distribution of the test statistic for testing equal covariance matrices is identical to the distribution of the same test statistic when the population covariance matrices are equal and the observations are independent.

Visual Discrimination and Visuomotor Integration among Two Classes of Brazilian Children

The Raven Matrices, Beery, and Bender-Gestalt tests were given to 415 Brazilian children in public and private schools corresponding to two socioeconomic statuses. Both social class and grade in school influenced all scores more than age. The Raven Matrices appeared to be the most affected by social class differences. Visual-motor integration and visual discrimination skills were moderately (.47-.69) correlated, especially among the private school students. Maturational differences based on age and school grade were considered somewhat better assessed by the Beery than the Raven or Bender-Gestalt tests. The wide age range at each grade and the decreasing enrollment in higher grades makes interpretation difficult.

What one intelligence test measures: A theoretical account of the processing in the Raven Progressive Matrices Test.

What one intelligence test measures: A theoretical account of the processing in the Raven Progressive Matrices Test.

Development of a new shortened version of Raven's matrices test for application and rough assessment of present intellectual capacity within psychopathological investigation.

Based on a sample of 300 psychiatric patients the items of the Standard Progressive Matrices test are analyzed in terms of classical and probabilistic methods, and a version shortened to 30 items is developed. This new version of the test is then standardized from a new sample of 1,200 patients. A table of selected percentiles is computed. Validation with respect to rough classification of intelligence is proved by comparison with results of the WIP .

Reliability of the Raven Colored Progressive Matrices Test: Age and ethnic group comparisons.

Reliability of the Raven Colored Progressive Matrices Test: Age and ethnic group comparisons.

Differential Correlates of Bender-Gestalt and Beery Visual Motor Integration Test for Black and for White Children

The Bender-Gestalt and Beery Developmental Test of Visual Motor Integration were administered to 58 black and 33 white children, aged 10-5, mean IQ of 81, of comparable socioeconomic class. WISC, Peabody, Raven Matrices, and Wide Range Achievement Test scores were correlated separately for each racial group. No test appeared to have unique value in helping alleviate possible racial differences in test performance, correlated with achievement test scores at levels exceeding correlation of the WISC with such scores.

The Meaning and Stability of Raven's Matrices Test Among Africans

Abstract L'etude porte sur les facteurs qui conditionnent la reussite des sujets africains a des tests d'aptitude, les Matrices de Raven en particulier. Une etude recente menee au Nigeria, montre qu'une seconde passation des Matrices, six mois apres la premiere, ameliore les reponses; ces resultats sont compares a ceux de nouvelles recherches entreprises dans l'Est Africain. L'A. propose une theorie psychosociale qui permettrait de predire quels sont les sujets qui reussiraient le mieux dans ces epreuves. Il constate que l'utilisation de moyens audiovisuels pour transmettre les items et les consignes joue un role important. On peut voir d'apres les resultats que les sujets qui avaient des notes basses aux Matrices sont ceux qui s'ameliorent le plus au cours d'une seconde passation; d'autre part, bien que les notes aux Matrices correlent fortement avec les notes a l'epreuve EFT (Embedded Figures Test), on peut remarquer que ce sont les sujets qui avaient les notes les plus fortes a l'EFT, dont les reponses...

Raven Progressive Matrices, Non-Language Multi-Mental Test, and California Test of Mental Maturity: Intercorrelations

Where the CTMM is used for group testing of intelligence, it is sometimes necessary to test children whose deficiency in the English language and cultural background make it difficult for them to understand the verbal items. A study by Altus (1956) has shown that such children may perform considerably better on the Non-language than on the Language portion of the test. Hence, it may be desirable to use a Non-language test having significant correlations with rhe CTMM scores, as r = .67 between the WISC Performance Scale and the CTMM Total Score (Altus, 1955). The present study evaluated the relation between the CTMM (Short Form) and the two non-language tests: The Raven Progressive Matrices (1938) and the Non-language Multi-Mental Test (Form A) . Ss were 84 sixth grade pupils from three elementary schools in Rockland County, N.Y. (51 males and 33 females). The Raven and Multi-Mental were administered to 11 additional sixth grade pupils, bringing the total N to 95 (57 males and 38 females). Significant ( p < .01) product-moment rs of .51 and .69 were found between the Raven and CTMM Language, Non-language, and Total Scores, respectively; corresponding rs ( p < .01) between the Multi-Mental and CTMM were .33, .45, and .49, respectively. r = .60 ( p < .Ol) between Raven and Multi-Mental test scores. Obviously, most of these rs were within the expected limits of .SO to .70, as commonly found when intelligence tests are correlated. While both the Raven Matrices and Multi-Mental tests showed positive rs with CTMM scores, Raven and C'IMM scores yielded the higher rs. Since the r of .69 between the Raven Macrices and the CTMM Total Score was approximately equal to the r between WISC Performance Scale and CTMM as reported by Altus (1955), it is suggested that the Raven Matrices might offer an additional method of assessing the intelligence of children with language and/or cultural handicaps.

The Navy-Northwestern matrices test.

The Navy-Northwestern matrices test.