Ricerc@Sapienza

In this study, normative data for the age-range 18–40 years have been provided for the Verbal
Judgment Test (VJT), which underpins abstract reasoning on the basis of four subtests:
“Differences”, “Proverbs”, “Absurdities” and “Classifications”. 554 participants (280 males and 274
females) were recruited and the following data were provided: means and standard deviations divided
by gender, educational level (8, 13 and 18 years) and age group (18–20 years, 21–25 years,
26–30 years, 31–35 years and 36–40 years) for each subtest and the total score; percentiles for
each subtest, divided by age group, and, when appropriate, educational level and/or gender; Rho
correlations between age group, gender, educational level, intelligence and VJT scores. Age-, education-
and gender differences were also assessed carrying out non parametric tests. Results
showed that age and education positively affected performance in the subtests of Differences,
Proverbs and Classifications, which are mostly based on previous knowledge, experience, and crystallized
intelligence, but did not affect performance in the Absurdities subtest, which encompasses
to some extent fluid intelligence. In addition, males showed higher scores than females in the
subtests of Differences and Proverbs and in the total VJT, probably reflecting higher knowledge
acquisition. Implications for future research are briefly discussed.