Neuropsychological Analysis of the Structure of Ravens’s Coloured Progressive Matrices Test in Children 6–9 Years Old

Abstract

Background. Raven’s Coloured Progressive Matrices (RCPMs) is a widely used instrument as one of psychometric measures of general intelligence in children. However, according to some researchers, the RCPM is heterogeneous and individual tasks may be associated with the assessment of various cognitive components. Objective. This study is aimed to examine the influence of functions of visual and visuospatial processing, and executive functions on the productivity of RCPMs. Sample. A total of 297 children from 6 to 9 years old participated in the study. Of these, 98 were preschoolers, 87 first graders and 112 second graders. A total of 152 boys and 145 girls participated in the study. All children had no diagnosed developmental and neurological disorders. Methods. All the children accomplished the computerized version of RCPM in the Rosanova’s modification. They also passed a neuropsychological assessment adapted for 6–9-year-old children. Results. Age differences were shown. They were the greatest when comparing preschoolers and first-grader. The differences between first-graders and second-graders were less prominent. Hierarchical regression analysis showed that three parts of the matrices are related to separate groups of functions to different degrees. The first part of the test is most related to the state of visual information processing functions; the second part refers to the state of visual-spatial information processing and executive functions; and the third part to a greater extent deals with the state of executive functions. Conclusion. The results indicate the heterogeneity of tasks in RCPM and the promise of a more detailed analysis of the structure of the technique, including the use of a neuropsychological approach.

Keywords

• preschoolers
• primary schoolchildren
• neuropsychological assessment
• executive functions
• visual-spatial information processing
• raven's test