Objectives: the present study set out to build the percentiles norms of the Standard Progressive
Matrices (SPM) (2010-2012) for the 1177 middle school children (11.8 to 17.7 years) of the rural
commune Sidi El Kamel (North-Western Morocco); to place those norms in an international
context, and to report on the reliability of the SPM test.
Material and methods: the SPM test is used to measure general intelligence; the reliabilities of
the SPM test are assessed by Cronbach’s Alpha; the SPM percentiles norms are compared to
those of other countries by the medians.
Findings: the reliabilities of the SPM test by age as assessed by Cronbach’s alpha are 0.84 to
0.9; the mean of the SPM scores of all subjects is (M=29.80/60, SD=12.92; (IQ=71.5)), the
median score is 32 (IQ=76.8); the SPM scores obtained are considerably lower than those
compared to the children at the same age in developed countries.
Conclusions: the study reconfirmed the reliability of the SPM test; a combination of the usual
suspects, including poverty, poor education family background, and rural area, impairs children’s
intellectual development.