A1262229310KQwgC - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

Title: A1262229310KQwgC


1
A NORMATIVE AND VALIDITY STUDY OF RAVENS
PROGRESSIVE MATRICES FOR ICELANDIC PUPILS AGED
6-16Jörgen Pind (jorgen_at_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for ability tests are outdated.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 Ravens Progressive Matrices
for Icelandic schoolchildren in grades 110 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.
ICELANDIC NORMS FOR RAVENS 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 23
points above the UK standardization sample from
1979 (Raven 2000).
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
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 Ravens Progressive
Matrices. Correlations are based on all children
tested.
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.
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
Area Pupils Sample Standardization sample Tested Final standardization 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
7th grade RPM Icelandic Maths
RPM
Icelandic .64
Maths .75 .80
n 71
CONCLUSIONS The Icelandic school age norms for
the Ravens 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.
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.