Cattell Culture Fair Intelligence Test (1949)

It began as culture-free and ended up culture-fair

Cattell's 1940 paper was called "A culture-free intelligence test". Even the 1949 Scale 1 handbook still used the title Culture Free Intelligence Test. "Fair" is the more modest claim.^1,2

1930sGroup and individual testsCattell's early work led to his group and individual intelligence tests.⁵

c. 1935Recast as non-verbalSeveral scales, especially those for children, were rewritten in non-verbal form to remove the influence of verbal fluency.⁷

1940"Culture-free", six subtestsItems became entirely perceptual and were grouped into six subtests. Of 159 items analysed, 72 were kept.⁵

1949The lasting formatFour subtests at each of two difficulty levels, published through IPAT in Champaign, Illinois.⁵

1961Fine-tuningThe order of a few items was adjusted by difficulty.⁵

Series2 items

Classifications2 items

Matrices2 items

Conditions1 item

TRY IT · SEVEN ITEMS · TIMED

One item type per station, each on its own clock

Each subtest of the real test is timed separately. Here each item gets the average time per item at Scale 3 pace: roughly 14 seconds for series and matrices, 17 for classifications and 15 for conditions.⁷ If the clock runs out, the item counts as missed.

Items drawn for this page in the four published formats. They aren't CFIT items and aren't normed.

SERIES · ITEM 1 / 7Which figure comes next?

➜

Five figures below. Four follow one rule; pick the one that doesn't.

0 of 7 right

In the real test a raw score converts to an IQ-type score with mean 100 on Cattell's own scale. Its standard deviation isn't the Wechsler one, so the number isn't directly comparable.³

Three scales, climbing in difficulty

The three scales run from young children to high-ability adults. Only the two upper scales use the four timed formats.^3,1

1Scale 1 · young childrenEight subtests, including mazes, copying symbols and identifying similar drawings.²

2Scale 2Four timed subtests: series, classifications, matrices, conditions.²

3Scale 3 · high abilityThe same four subtests, harder. The Triple Nine Society accepts a combined raw score of 85 on forms A and B for admission.⁵

SeriesComplete a sequence of drawings.²

ClassificationsPick the drawing that differs from the rest.²

MatricesComplete a matrix of patterns.²

ConditionsChoose which of several geometric designs meets a given condition.²

Aimed at Gf, not Gc

GfFluid intelligence: the target

Reasoning with new material. Because Gf correlates strongly with general intelligence, a culture-fair Gf score works as a stand-in for g, though it isn't a full cognitive profile.³ In adults it slowly declines with age.²

GcCrystallised intelligence: kept out

Knowledge shaped by education and culture, which is exactly what the test tries to leave out.³ Gc tends to rise with experience, so the gap between the two widens across adulthood.²

How fair, and where it's used

The goalRemove language and culture-specific content so that reasoning is measured apart from acquired knowledge.⁴

The targetWechsler and Stanford-Binet scores were assumed to be biased, so items needing language skills or general knowledge were left out.⁵

In useEducational placement, cross-cultural research, and any situation where language or culture would undermine a standard battery.⁶

StatusStill widely used in cross-cultural research, but no longer sold commercially in the United States.⁴

References

[1]What is the Cattell Culture Fair Intelligence Test (CFIT)? Riot IQ (2026).riotiq.com

[2]Wikipedia contributors. Cattell Culture Fair Intelligence Test (accessed 29 Sept 2026).en.wikipedia.org

[3]Cattell Culture Fair Intelligence Test (CFIT). Cogn-IQ (2026).cogn-iq.org/learn

[4]Culture fair IQ tests: how they work and their limits. Cogn-IQ (2023).cogn-iq.org/blog

[5]Culture Fair Intelligence Test. EXPLORE the world of behavioral sciences (2015).explorebehavioralsciences.blogspot.com

[6]What are culture fair intelligence tests? Riot IQ (2026).riotiq.com

[7]Culture Fair Intelligence Tests (student course notes). Knowt.knowt.com

[8]Wikipedia contributors. Raymond Cattell (accessed 29 Sept 2026).en.wikipedia.org

HOW TO CITE THIS PAGE

What's Your IQ. (2026). Cattell Culture Fair Intelligence Test (1949). In Historical IQ Tests Archive. Retrieved September 29, 2026, from /en/historical-iq-tests/cattell-culture-fair-1949

EDITORIAL RECORD

First published2026

Last reviewed29 September 2026

Sources8, all from visible search results

Open questionsSubtest timings from course notes; US distribution status

Canonical URLwhats-your-iq.com/en/historical-iq-tests/cattell-culture-fair-1949

Related historical tests

Same author, same year1949

Cattell 16PF

Cattell's personality questionnaire, published by IPAT the same year. Both come from his factor-analytic programme: one maps personality, the other isolates reasoning. The 16PF even includes a short reasoning scale.

ReferenceRead more →

The closest rival1936

Raven's Progressive Matrices

The other standard non-verbal test in cross-cultural research. Raven uses only matrices; Cattell added series, classifications and conditions around the same core format.

InteractiveTake it →

For younger test-takers1947

Raven's Coloured Progressive Matrices

Published two years earlier for children aged 5 to 11. Compare its coloured matrices with the CFIT's Scale 1 tasks for young children, such as mazes and symbol copying.

ReferenceRead more →

The first mass non-verbal test1918

Army Beta

The WWI picture test for recruits who couldn't read English. It was the first large-scale attempt to test intelligence without language, the problem Cattell was still working on 30 years later.

InteractiveTake it →

Mazes, as in Scale 11915

Porteus Maze Test

Printed mazes of increasing difficulty. Mazes reappear among the CFIT Scale 1 subtests for young children.

ReferenceRead more →

Another claim to fairness1926

Goodenough Draw-A-Man Test

Children draw a person and the drawing is scored. It is another non-verbal way to assess young children without relying on reading or much speech.

InteractiveTake it →

Part of the Historical IQ Tests Archive. Editorial content under CC BY-SA 4.0. The CFIT is under copyright (IPAT); no test items are reproduced.

BibTeX RIS