A NORMATIVE AND VALIDITY STUDY OF RAVEN’S PROGRESSIVE MATRICES FOR ICELANDIC PUPILS AGED

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Jörgen Pind (jorgen@hi.is), Eyrún K. Gunnarsdóttir, Hinrik S. JóhannessonDepartment of Psychology, University of Iceland, Reykjavík

AIM AND BACKGROUND

Tests of ability have played an important, though not undisputed, role in the diagnosis of learning disabilities. The Flynn effect (Neisser, 1998) shows the necessity of having current norms. Available Icelandic norms for ability tests are outdated. The most extensive standardization was that of Jónasson (1956), involving the Stanford-Binet test. A standardization of the original WISC was published in 1971 (Hannibalsson, 1971). Up-to-date norms for these tests are, however, not available.

The aim of this project was to gather norms for the Raven’s Progressive Matrices for Icelandic schoolchildren in grades 1–10 and to test the validity of the test by comparing results to nation-wide achievement tests administered in the fourth, seventh and tenth grades.

This project forms part of a long-term research program investigating the the acquisition of reading and the prevalence and nature of reading difficulties in Icelandic. METHOD

A nationally representative standardization sample of 600 children, 30 boys and 30 girls in each grade, was defined. It proved possible to test 550 of these children. Tests were group administered. The following table shows the makeup of the sample, distributed among the different areas of the country. The map shows testing sites.

ICELANDIC NORMS FOR RAVEN’S PROGRESSIVE MATRICES

The median score on the Matrices in the first grade was 22,5 (out of 60), 32 in second grade, 37 in third grade rising more gradually after that to 50 in the tenth grade. Grade based norms are shown in the table below. Results show that on average the Icelandic pupils are 2–3 points above the UK standardization sample from 1979 (Raven 2000).

A TEST OF VALIDITY

Annually, Icelandic children in 4th, 7th and 10th grade take nationally administered examinations in Mathematics and Icelandic, in the 10th grade also in two foreign languages, Danish and English. These examinations were required of all pupils until the year 2000. The Icelandic National Examinations are administered by a national institute which has many years of experience in conducting these examinations. We obtained data for the performance of the pupils in our sample on the 4th and 7th grade examinations (fall 1999) and the 10th grade (spring 2000). The following tables show the correlations of these examinations with the Raven’s Progressive Matrices. Correlations are based on all children tested.

CONCLUSIONS

The Icelandic school age norms for the Raven’s Progressive Matrices follow the same pattern as seen in other countries. A ceiling effect in the test is apparent for the older children. Correlations with scholastic achievement, as measured with the nationally administered tests, are higher than in most other studies. The correlations are very high in the 7th grade falling somewhat in tenth grade which can probably be explained by the ceiling effect seen for the RPM. These results support the validity of the RPM, especially for children in the first seven grades.

The making of a vocabulary test is in progress.

4th grade

RPM Icelandic Maths

RPM —

Icelandic .38 —

Maths .50 0.74 — n = 66

10th grade

RPM Icelandic Maths Danish English

RPM —

Icelandic .53 —

Maths .69 .79 —

Danish .59 .72 .71 —

English .48 .73 .52 .64 —

n = 56

REFERENCES

Hannibalsson, A. (1971). Wechslers intelligence test for children [In Icelandic]. Reykjavík: Municipal health center.

Jónasson, M. (1956). Intellectual development and an intelligence test: An investigation of the intellectual development of Icelandic school children accompanied by an intelligence test [In Icelandic]. Reykjavík: Ministry of Education.

Neisser, U. (Ed.). (1998). The rising curve: Long-term gains in IQ and related measures. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.

Raven, J. (2000). The Raven's Progressive Matrices: Change and stability over culture and time. Cognitive Psychology, 41, 1– 48.

7th grade

RPM Icelandic Maths

RPM —

Icelandic .64 —

Maths .75 .80 — n = 71

Area Pupils SampleStandardization

sampleTeste

d

Final standardizati

on sample

Reykjavik 14,917 240 200 192 184

South-west 12,882 200 180 156 154

West 2,445 60 40 54 39

Western fjords

1,340 60 20 46 19

North-west 1,527 60 20 48 20

North-east 4,322 80 60 64 56

East 1,986 60 30 53 30

South 3,611 60 50 52 48

Total 43,030 820 600 665 550

Grade

Percentile

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

95 40 40 47 51 50 55 53 53 54 56

90 38 39 45 50 48 54 52 52 53 55

75 30 36 42 46 45 48 50 50 51 53

50 23 32 37 40 41 43 45 47 47 50

25 15 24 31 35 34 41 43 42 46 46

10 13 17 24 30 29 35 36 37 42 43

5 12 14 21 26 27 32 34 34 39 42

n (=550) 54 58 55 53 57 56 59 56 51 51