title: Analysis of adult age differences on the Raven's Advanced Progressive Matrices Test.
abstract: The purpose of this project was to examine the nature of performance, and specifically, age-related performance, on the Raven's Advanced Progressive Matrices (APM) Test (Raven, Court, & Raven, 1983). In the 1st of 2 studies, 2 tests presumed to measure each of 4 hypothesized components of the APM and 3 tests presumed to measure processing speed were presented to 165 young adults. On the basis of correlational and confirmatory analyses, 1 of the components was not included in Study 2. The 2nd study was designed to examine the influence of the 3 remaining components, processing speed, and working memory on the individual and age-related differences on the APM. Participants included 183 adults between the ages of 21 and 83. The results suggest that although all 3 components are important to performance on the APM, rule application tasks seem to hold the most promise in accounting for age-related variance on the APM.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Nebraska, Lincoln 68588-0308.
authors.forename: R L
authors.initials: RL
authors.lastname: Babcock
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000375:Aging / Q000502:physiology* / Q000523:psychology; D006040:Goals; D006801:Humans; D008128:Logic; D008570:Memory, Short-Term; D008875:Middle Aged; D010363:Pattern Recognition, Automated; D011581:Psychological Tests; D011930:Reaction Time; D012044:Regression Analysis