Sex differences on three factors identified in Raven's Standard Progressive Matrices

Abstract

Raven's Standard Progressive Matrices (SPM) was administered to a sample of 2735 12- to 18-year-olds in Estonia. Both a scree test and the consistent Akaike information criterion (CAIC) indicated the presence of three significant factors. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis showed the loadings of the items on the three factors, which were identified as the gestalt continuation found by van der Ven and Ellis [Pers. Individ. Differ. 45], verbal-analytic reasoning and visuospatial ability. Further analysis of the three factors showed a higher order factor identifiable as g. Examination of age by sex differences showed that on all four factors girls performed better than boys at the age of 12, there was no sex difference at age 14, while boys performed better than girls at the age of 17, although not significantly on visuospatial ability. © 2004 Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.