Cut from the 1938 test, with one new set
The Standard Progressive Matrices had 60 items in five sets, A to E. To spread scores out at the low end, Raven reused sets A and B and placed a new set of 12, Ab, between them, pitched between the two in difficulty.2 The Advanced Progressive Matrices, for the high end, was published the same year.2
Colour to hold attention, black and white to hand over
Most items are printed on a coloured background to catch and keep a child's attention. Items get harder within each set, and set B has the hardest.1,3
These are black on white, so a child who does better than expected can move on to sets C, D and E of the Standard matrices.3
Each item has six options and one correct answer.4 The sets were meant to separate degrees of intellectual maturity by measuring how well a child makes comparisons and reasons by analogy.1 There is no time limit; it usually takes 15 to 30 minutes.7
Which piece fills the gap?
The early CPM items are coloured patterns with a piece cut out. Choose the one of six options that completes the pattern. Watch for the piece that looks right but is shifted.
Six invented patterns, made for this page. Not Raven's items; not scored or normed.
What the 36 items measure
A 2002 Brazilian factor analysis (Pasquali and colleagues) sorted the items into four factors, alongside a general analogical-reasoning factor. Each cell is one item, coloured by its factor.5
Dumfries to 35 countries
References
- [1]A normative and reliability study for the Raven's Coloured Progressive Matrices for primary school aged children from Victoria, Australia (2005). Personality and Individual Differences. ScienceDirect.sciencedirect.com
- [2]Computational models of solving Raven's Progressive Matrices: A comprehensive introduction (2023). arXiv:2302.04238.arxiv.org/pdf/2302.04238
- [3]Wikipedia contributors. Raven's Progressive Matrices (accessed 29 Sept 2026).en.wikipedia.org
- [4]A psychometric analysis of Raven's Colored Progressive Matrices: Evaluating guessing and carelessness using the 4PL item response theory model. PubMed Central.pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/PMC8883956
- [5]Muniz, M. et al. (2016). Factor structure of Raven's Coloured Progressive Matrices. Psico-USF, 21(2), 259–272. ResearchGate.researchgate.net
- [6]The impact of school feeding on children's growth and development (study NCT03263377; CPM description). ClinicalTrials.gov.clinicaltrials.gov
- [7]Raven's Coloured Progressive Matrices (CPM). Psychology Roots (2024).psychologyroots.com
Related historical tests
The original black-and-white matrices. The CPM took its sets A and B directly from this test and added set Ab between them, so this is the place to see where the coloured items came from.
Children draw a man and the drawing is scored on a checklist. Like the CPM, it tried to measure a young child's ability without relying on reading or much speech.
Reproduce printed designs with coloured blocks. Another non-verbal task that uses colour and pattern, but asks for building rather than choosing an answer.
Printed mazes of increasing difficulty. An earlier attempt to test reasoning without words, also ordered from easy to hard.
The WWI picture-based test for recruits who couldn't read English. It is an early example of the non-verbal group testing that Raven's matrices later refined.
Cattell's test also used non-verbal items to cut out language and schooling. It appeared two years after the CPM with a similar aim of fairer comparison.