Sex differences on the progressive matrices among adolescents: some data from Estonia

It has long been asserted that there are no sex differences on the Progressive Matrices. Contrary to this position, it has been contended by Lynn (1994, 1998) that there is a small difference favoring females from the age of approximately 9–14 years, and a difference favouring males from the age of 16 onwards, reaching approximately 2.4 IQ points among adults. Data to test these two theories are reported from a standardization of the Progressive Matrices on a sample of 2689 12–18 year olds in Estonia. The results confirm the Lynn theory and show a female advantage of 3.8 IQ points among 12–15 year olds and a male advantage of 1.6 IQ points among 16–18 year olds. Boys had a significantly larger standard deviation than girls. The results provide further confirmation that in early adolescence girls outperform boys on abstract (non-verbal) reasoning ability but that in later adolescence boys outperform girls.