A Short History of Progressive Matrices Tests
How a deliberately wordless puzzle format from 1930s Britain became the most widely used measure of abstract reasoning on Earth.
By Zunix Editorial Team · Published · Updated
In the 1930s, British psychologist John C. Raven set out to build a measure of reasoning that did not depend on language. The result, published in 1938, was the Standard Progressive Matrices: sixty visual puzzles arranged in five sets of twelve, each set beginning easy and growing hard — hence “progressive.”
Why wordless mattered
Verbal tests of the era inevitably measured schooling and social background along with reasoning. A puzzle made only of patterns could be given to people who spoke different languages, had little formal education, or could not read at all — and it would demand the same thing of everyone: notice the rule, apply the rule.
Adoption and influence
The format spread quickly — into military selection during the Second World War, then into schools, clinics and research laboratories worldwide. Easier and harder variants followed the original: the Coloured Progressive Matrices for children and older adults, and the Advanced Progressive Matrices for high-ability groups. Matrix-style items were eventually absorbed into nearly every major intelligence battery.
The Flynn effect
Progressive matrices played a starring role in one of psychology's most famous discoveries. When researcher James Flynn compared norms across decades, he found that raw scores on matrix tests had risen substantially generation over generation across many countries — a phenomenon now called the Flynn effect. Why scores rose (schooling, nutrition, familiarity with abstraction, test sophistication) remains actively debated, and some countries have reported the trend flattening or reversing in recent decades.
The format today
Nearly a century on, the matrix format remains the reference point for non-verbal reasoning measurement — and its item styles are, deliberately or not, the template for most abstract-reasoning questions in modern aptitude testing. The original published instruments remain commercial, professionally administered tests; online adaptations like ours follow the classic format for educational self-assessment.