ReviewCognitive research: principles and implications2022
Cross-cultural differences in visuo-spatial processing and the culture-fairness of visuo-spatial intelligence tests: an integrative review and a model for matrices tasks.
Review in Cognitive research: principles and implications, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 22 papers.
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Who cites it
22 citing papers in PubMed, 47 citations in OpenAlex.
- Component-Based Analysis of Visuospatial Memory Using the Corsi Task.The European journal of neuroscience · 2026Article
- Task Engagement in Matrix Reasoning Performance: A Cross-Cultural Investigation in China and the United Kingdom.Journal of Intelligence · 2026Article
- Relationship Between Intelligence and Creative Potential: Evidence from Data-Driven Analysis.Journal of Intelligence · 2026Article
- Challenging existing Raven's norms based on children attending government schools in India.Journal of cultural cognitive science · 2026Article
- Editorial: Highlights in cognition: visual-spatial processing.Frontiers in psychology · 2026Article
- Development and validation of a short form for the Raven's Coloured Progressive Matrices using a machine learning approach.The British journal of developmental psychology · 2025Article
- Developmental Coordination Disorder in Preschool-Aged Children: A Neuropsychological Perspective on Visuospatial Working Memory and Attentional, Planning, and Decision-Making Processing in Relation to Fundamental Movement Skills.Children (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- Translation and cultural adaptation of tools to assess diverse Asian American and Asian Canadian subgroups: The Asian Cohort for Alzheimer's Disease (ACAD) Study.Alzheimer's & dementia : the journal of the Alzheimer's Association · 2025Article
- Article
- Cognitive assessment in the Accelerating Medicines Partnership® Schizophrenia Program: harmonization priorities and strategies in a diverse international sample.Schizophrenia (Heidelberg, Germany) · 2025Article
- PENSIEVE-AI a brief cognitive test to detect cognitive impairment across diverse literacy.Nature communications · 2025Article
- Review
- Measuring intercultural competence-A review and introduction of the Cult Euro 1 test for intercultural competence.Frontiers in psychology · 2025Review
- HK-OxVPS: an adaptation of the Oxford Visual Perception Screen for the Cantonese speaking population in Hong Kong.Frontiers in neurology · 2025Article
- The development and validation of a tablet-based assessment battery of general cognitive ability.BMC psychology · 2024Article
- Crystallized Intelligence, Fluid Intelligence, and Need for Cognition: Their Longitudinal Relations in Adolescence.Journal of Intelligence · 2024Article
- Racial and ethnic disparities in the co-occurrence of intellectual disability and autism: Impact of incorporating measures of adaptive functioning.Autism research : official journal of the International Society for Autism Research · 2024Article
- Experiences of experts in intelligence measurement of South African school learners.African journal of psychological assessment · 2024Article
- Do subtle cultural differences sculpt face pareidolia?Schizophrenia (Heidelberg, Germany) · 2023Article
- Intelligence, cognition, and major neurocognitive disorders: From constructs to measures.Cerebral circulation - cognition and behavior · 2023Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
1 author at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Visuo-spatial reasoning tests, such as Raven's matrices, Cattell's culture-fair test, or various subtests of the Wechsler scales, are frequently used to estimate intelligence scores in the context of inter-racial comparisons. This has led to several high-profile works claiming that certain ethnic groups have lower intelligence than others, presumably due to genetic inferiority. This logic is predicated on the assumption that such visuo-spatial tests, because they are non-verbal, must be culture-fair: that their solution process does not significantly draw on factors that vary from one culture to the next. This assumption of culture-fairness is dubious at best and has been questioned by many authors. In this article, I review the substantial body of psychological and ethnographic literature which has demonstrated that the perception, manipulation and conceptualization of visuo-spatial information differs significantly across cultures, in a way that is relevant to intelligence tests. I then outline a model of how these inter-cultural differences can affect seven major steps of the solution process for Raven's matrices, with a brief discussion of other visuo-spatial reasoning tests. Overall, a number of cultural assumptions appear to be deeply ingrained in all visuo-spatial reasoning tests, to the extent that it disqualifies the view of such tests as intrinsically culture-fair and makes it impossible to draw clear-cut conclusions from average score differences between ethnic groups.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.