9 and 10-year-olds' performance on the Raven’s coloured progressive matrices

Abstract

This study investigated the performance of 9- and 10-year-old children in four Maltese state schools on the Raven’s Coloured Progressive Matrices (RCPM). It tested the null hypothesis (H0) that there were no differences between RCPM scores and gender, age, or students’ academic achievement. It also tested the null hypotheses (H0) that there were no differences between the norms obtained and the international norms in the RCPM manual. Primary data was collected through group administration of the RCPM to Year 5 and Year 6 students. Additional data was collected from parent surveys on parents’ occupation, level of education, and the home learning environment. The global end-of-year examination marks for Maltese, English, and Mathematics of all participating students were also obtained. This study revealed that Maltese students outperformed the 50th centile of the international sample in the RCPM manual. Gender differences were not significant, though females scored slightly higher across both age groups. Age-related differences were statistically significant. Three examination marks showed significant correlations with RCPM scores, however, these lacked a consistent pattern and were difficult to interpret. The study recommended establishing national RCPM norms to more accurately represent the cognitive skills of Maltese students. It also suggested that future research use a larger, more diverse sample of students from different school sectors and localities.