The Raven's test performance of South Sudanese samples: A validation of criticisms of the utility of Raven's among Sub-Saharan Africans

Abstract

It has been argued that Raven's tests are problematic in the context of Sub-Saharan Africa. No discussion of Raven's in South Sudan, one of the least developed countries in Africa, has been presented. We present all known administrations of Raven's to South Sudanese samples. We find that Raven's in South Sudan is problematic. The scores are so low that they may imply that the subjects had little understanding of the test and simply guessed the answers. It is argued that the undeveloped nature of South Sudan means that a test based around shapes and analytic thinking is unsuitable. It is likely to heavily under-estimate their average intelligence.