Gender differences and Raven's test - in press article

Mackintosh, N. & Bennett, T. (in press) What do Raven’s Matrices measure? An analysis in terms of sex differences, Intelligence.

Abstract

• Although it is sometimes claimed that Raven's Matrices provide an almost pure measure of that the easier items in the Standard Progressive Matrices and in Set I of the Advanced Matrices measure a perceptual or Gestalt factor distinct from the more analytic items in the rest of the tests. What one intelligence test measures: A theoretical account of the processing in the Raven's Progressive Matrices Test. published data suggests a new source of evidence for this further distinction: males do better than females on items requiring an addition/subtraction or distribution of two rule, but there is no sex difference on items requiring pairwise progression or distribution of three rules. A specially designed experiment confirmed this pattern of results.