Pattern of errors in Raven’s Colored Progressive Matrices and their use in the clinical assessment of intelligence

Abstract

Since his pioneer studies, Raven demonstrated the importance of qualitative and quantitative analysis of the performance in his Progressive Matrices Test, both in normative and clinical samples (Raven 1936, 1941a, 2000, Raven et al., 1995). He described four types of erroneous responses, named as follow: 1) difference error; 2) figure repetition error; 3) inadequate individuation error: 4) incomplete correlate error. Raven claimed that the qualitative analysis of the pattern of errors could be useful in the analysis of the level of reasoning used during the execution of the test: each error can have a different level of sophistication, the more sophisticated error is the more similar to the correct option (Raven et al., 1995) and each error gives some indication of the processes and the strategies used during the solution of the item(Raven et al., 1990). Moreover, there is a general agreement on the usefulness of qualitative error analysis to collect more information on the reasoning abilities. The present study aims to propose some findings of the assessment of the pattern of errors on Raven’s Colored Progressive Matrices in a kindergarten and primary schoolsample and to propose some hints of analysis on the role of the evaluation of types of errors from a clinical point of view. We also discuss about the use of pattern of errors evaluation as a way to gain information about reasoning during intelligence assessment. We also discuss its use during the current COVID-19 pandemic, as a way tocollectas more information as possible about reasoning in each individual, even with the use of e-platforms, like the ones used as alternative to face-to-face assessment of intelligence.