A new test for pattern matching intelligence for school children and performance analysis with academic grade point

The research was to understand visual and pattern detection intelligence of school children with the Raven’s progressive matrices test and specially designed set of tests with patterns. The premise is: tests like the... [ view full abstract ]

The research was to understand visual and pattern detection intelligence of school children with the Raven’s progressive matrices test and specially designed set of tests with patterns. The premise is: tests like the Raven’s present abstract patterns while the real-world presents concrete contextual patterns and hence testing children with later condition would be ecologically valid. The participants were 40 fourth grade students (25 boys and 15 girls) of a government run school. No one in the class had attempted the Raven’s test before. Each student’s academic performance on a grade scale of A+,A, B & C was  collected from the teacher.  A 6-level pattern matching game application was designed and developed using photographs of animals with complex skin patterns, landscapes, Escher’s staircase illusion and flora. In each level five photographs were displayed on a computer screen with blank patches at strategically selected parts of the image. Each participant had to match the options (patches) to the missing blanks in the image within 30 seconds. Two iterations of the pattern matching game were conducted with a gap of 5 weeks in between, in the first the patch options were the same number  as the blanks and in the second the number of patch options were doubled. In the latter condition each pattern was flipped 90 or 180 degrees. The analysis compared the class grades, Raven’s scores and the game scores and the differences in scores when the numbers of options (iteration 2) with asymmetrical patterns were introduced. Each question was categorized (landscape, animal, illusions) and weighted for difficulty and concept – symmetrical versus asymmetrical, geometrical versus free-form etc.  The data highlights the following points: a) the toppers (A+ grade) in academics also scored high in the intelligence tests administered, b) there was no significant variance between the scores of Raven’s and game for iteration 1, when the choices were restricted whereas in the second iteration with confusing choices the scores were higher, c) importantly the sub-set of students in the lowest academic grade scored similar to the top A graders while the B grades were significantly lower. (d) Comparing between the levels in the pattern matching game, it was observed that landscapes with rich colors and complex textures scored lower (level 3 in the attached figure (b) ), though in the second iteration with multiple options the score was higher. The preliminary raw data analysis highlights an important parameter, that the students who fall at the bottom of the class grade have visual/pattern intelligence comparable with the top graders. This is an interesting proposition as most of these children are not given an opportunity for higher studies as cut-offs for admissions are based on academic grades.  Further test methods are required before strong conclusions can be arrived at.  The goal of this research is to present an alternate approach for testing capability and capacity for educational opportunities based on innate abilities with visual and pattern recognition intelligence being one of them. Each of the patterns used in the game application has to be studied in depth to understand the underlying reasoning applied. Statistical analysis was not conducted due to the small sample size and will be included as more data is collected.