Journal of Cognitive Education and Psychology

Volume 11, Number 2, 2012

The Increase in Colored Progressive

Matrices Test Performance in Individuals
With Down Syndrome: A Qualitative and
Quantitative Review
Silvia Lanfranchi
Barbara Carretti
University of Padova, Italy

It is well known that a normal population improves its IQ test scores by about 3 points
per decade. This is called the Flynn effect and has been explained in different and
sometimes contrasting ways. Few and ambiguous data are available on any Flynn
effect in individuals with an atypical development, such as those with intellectual
disabilities: some studies report evidence of the Flynn effect, whereas others do not.
The main objective of the present study was to analyze the performance of individu-
als with Down syndrome (DS) compared with a sample of typically developing (TD)
children in the Colored Progressive Matrices (CPM) test, which measures abstract
reasoning and is commonly used to estimate IQ, to see whether a Flynn effect is
present. Our results suggest that the Flynn effect in the DS population depends on
the individual’s age.

Keywords: Down syndrome; colored progressive matrices; fluid intelligence; Flynn effect

T
he term Flynn effect refers to an improvement in intelligence test scores over time that
was first demonstrated by Lynn (1982) and Flynn (1984). Flynn (1987) subsequently
reported increases from 5 to 25 IQ points from one generation to the next in 14 coun-
tries from the year 1932 onwards.
Since Flynn’s 1987 study, a large body of literature has been published on the Flynn ­effect,
exploring several aspects of the phenomenon. Most of the studies that confirmed the exis-
tence of the Flynn effect were conducted in economically developed regions such as the United
States, Japan, and those of Europe (Cattell, 1951; Flynn, 1984, 1987, 2007; Lynn, 1982; Lynn
& Hampson, 1986; Lynn, Hampson, & Mullineux, 1987). More recently, improvements in IQ
scores have also been reported in economically developing nations, such as Brazil (Colom,
Flores-Mendoza, & Abad, 2007), the Dominican Republic (Meisenberg, Lawless, Lambert, &

© 2012 Springer Publishing Company 143

http://dx.doi.org/10.1891/1945-8959.11.2.143
144 Lanfranchi and Carretti

Newton, 2006), Kenya (Daley, Whaley, Sigman, Espinosa & Neumann, 2003), Sub-Saharan
­Africa (Wicherts, Dolan, Carlson, & van der Maas, 2010), and Sudan (Khaleefa & Lynn, 2009).
These latter studies would indicate that the Flynn effect is generally applicable across
cultures, but the effect seems to vary across nations. For instance, higher increases in IQ test
scores were recorded in successive decades in France, Japan, Israel, and the Netherlands,
whereas only moderate improvements in IQ were found in Great Britain, Ireland, New
Zealand, and Australia (Flynn, 2007). Recent studies have also found evidence of the Flynn
effect fading in Norway (Sundet, Barlaug, & Torjussen, 2004) and in 6- to 11-year-old Austra-
lian children (Cotton et al., 2005). Teasdale and Owen (2008) also reported that the Danish
average IQ test performance improved from the early 1960s, peaked in the early 1990s, and
then began to decline. Finally, Shayer, Ginsburg, and Coe (2007) reported a drop of 4.3 IQ
points per decade over the years 1975–2003 among 11- to 12-year-old children in Britain.
Several studies (e.g., Flynn, 1987, 2007; Lynn, 1990; Lynn & Hampson, 1986; Wheeler, 1942)
found greater increases in IQ points for fluid IQ (nonverbal and reasoning abilities) than
for crystallized intelligence (verbal and educational abilities), although other studies have
reported a significant improvement in verbal IQ, too (e.g., Flynn, 2000; Pietschnig, Voracek,
& Formann, 2010).
The Flynn effect also seems to be age related. In fact, Flynn himself (2010) reported a
stronger Flynn effect in vocabulary tests in individuals older than 17 years of age than in
younger people: the magnitude of the increase in the younger individuals’ scores was less
than a quarter of the difference recorded for their elders. The hypothesis of a weaker Flynn
effect in people younger than 17 years of age would be supported by the fact that 3 of the 4
studies that found no Flynn effect were carried out on children.
Several studies have been conducted on the Flynn effect in people with intellectual dis-
abilities, but the results are inconsistent. Research performed in various countries, including
Great Britain, Spain, Denmark, France, and Norway, showed a stronger Flynn effect in par-
ticipants with lower IQs (Colom, Andrés-Pueyo, & Juan-Espinosa, 1998; Colom, Lluis-Font, &
Andrés-Pueyo, 2005; Ernst, 1992; Flynn, 2000; Lynn & Cooper, 1993; Lynn & Hampson, 1986;
Raven, 2000; Sanborn, Truscott, Phelps, & McDougal, 2003; Sundet et al., 2004; ­Teasdale &
Owen, 1989). For example, Ernst (1992) reported a 23% increment in the IQ scores of indi-
viduals whose IQ fell in the lower quartile, as opposed to 15% for those whose IQ was in the
upper quartile, over the course of 20 years (from 1971 to 1991). Similar results were pub-
lished by Sundet et al. (2004) in a study on a young Norwegian population with intellectual
disabilities.
In the same line, other studies on individuals with intellectual disabilities found evidence
of the Flynn effect by comparing the scores the individuals achieved in repeated adminis-
trations and different versions of the Wechsler scales (e.g., the Wechsler Intelligence Scale
for Children–Revised [WISC-R] and Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children–Third Edition
[WISC-III]; Bolen, Aichinger, Hall, & Webster, 1995; Kanaya & Ceci, 2010; Kanaya, Scullin, &
Ceci, 2003; Spitz, 1983). Other researchers were unable to find the Flynn effect in this type of
population, however. For instance, Lynn and Hampson (1986) found no consistent relation-
ship between the extent of the Flynn effect and level of intelligence. Spitz (1989) also reported
that the effect diminished both above and below average IQ range and was negative in the
case of IQs below 70. Negative effects were also noted by Simon and Clopton (1984) and by
Goldman (1987), who all considered individuals with moderate intellectual disabilities.
Flynn Effect and Down Syndrome 145

This diversity in the results may stem from several methodological issues. First, the afore-
mentioned studies used different definitions of “low IQ” or “intellectual disability.” The par-
ticipants in these studies were also of different ages and, as mentioned earlier, the Flynn
effect seems to be stronger in adults than in children. Nijman, Scheirs, Prinsen, Abbink,
and Blok (2010) suggested, moreover, that the tools used to assess IQ in typically developing
individuals may not always be as sensitive in individuals with intellectual disabilities because
low or very low IQs are outside the range of IQs for which the test was norm-referenced
(e.g., Wechsler, 1991, 1997). Such individuals often reach low scores clustered in the lower
range of the scale with a low discriminating power (e.g., Walsh et al., 2007). Finally, the lan-
guage difficulties that individuals with intellectual disabilities experience (as often reported
in the various studies) might affect their ability to understand test instructions so their scores
could underestimate their real IQ.
Nevertheless, the Flynn effect seems to have an important impact on individuals with
intellectual disabilities, particularly concerning the diagnosis of cases with an IQ between
65 and 85. Indeed, Kanaya et al. (2003) found that children with an IQ of 70 on the WISC-R
(old norm) who were subsequently retested on the WISC-III (new norm) lost approximately
5 IQ points. The newer test led to a significant increase in the number of diagnoses of in-
tellectual disability because many of the individuals whose scores with the older test were
just above the IQ 70 cutoff for intellectual disability subsequently scored less than 70 with
the newer test, whereas the individuals who repeated the same, older test experienced an
insignificant 1-point improvement, entailing no significant changes in any diagnoses of
intellectual ­disability.
To our knowledge, no meta-analyses have been conducted on the Flynn effect in spe-
cific populations of individuals with intellectual disabilities, such as those with Down syn-
drome (DS).
DS is caused by the conflicting signals of an extra 21st chromosome, a condition known
as Trisomy 21. It affects about 1 in 1,000 live births (McGrother & Marshall, 1990). Most
people with DS have mild-to-severe intellectual impairment and a variety of associated physi-
cal, medical, and cognitive deficits, including language impairment (e.g., Dykens, Hodapp &
Finucane, 2000). The severity of language impairment in individuals with DS varies consider-
ably, and different components of the language system are affected to different degrees. In
general, DS affects expressive language more than receptive language and/or language com-
prehension (e.g., Miller, 1992; Rondal, 1996). Deficits in memory, especially verbal working
memory, have often been reported (e.g., Lanfranchi, Cornoldi, & Vianello, 2004; Lanfranchi,
Jerman, Dal Pont, Alberti, & Vianello, 2010; Lanfranchi, Jerman, & Vianello, 2009). At the
same time, individuals with DS have relatively intact visuospatial abilities (Lanfranchi et al.,
2004). Their weakness in the verbal domain has been confirmed by studies demonstrating a
decline in their IQ with age, which is more accentuated for the verbal than for the nonverbal
component (Carr, 2005).
Given the relative strength of the visuospatial domain in DS and the fact that some ­studies
have found a stronger Flynn effect in fluid than in crystallized intelligence (e.g. Flynn, 1998),
we investigated the existence of any Flynn effect in DS individuals’ performance with the
Colored Progressive Matrices (CPM) test, which minimally involves verbal abilities. To do so,
we reviewed the literature from 1990 to the present day. Evidence of this growth was sought
in the data collected by correlating the performance in the CPM test in terms of IQ and raw
146 Lanfranchi and Carretti

scores with the year of publication. The improvement in IQ could also depend on the age
of the sample considered, as suggested by Nijman et al. (2010), so the moderator effect of
chronological age was also analyzed by running regression analyses with CPM test perfor-
mance as the dependent variable and year of publication, chronological age, and the interac-
tion between the two as predictors. This enabled us to highlight how the IQ gains changed
depending on the participants’ age.
Any improvements in CPM test performance were also assessed in samples of typically
developing (TD) individuals considered as control groups in the studies analyzed, with a view
to identifying the changes occurring in the general population by comparison with the DS
sample.

METHOD
Sample
A search in the published literature was carried out to identify studies in which the CPM
tests were used to assess fluid intelligence in individuals with DS. The PubMed, MEDLINE,
Web of Science, and PsycINFO databases were searched from 1990 to the present day, using
combinations of specific terms including Down syndrome, Trisomy 21, fluid intelligence,
Colored Progressive Matrices, and Raven. The articles retrieved were also examined for fur-
ther relevant publications.
We limited our search to studies in the English language in peer-reviewed journals.
Table 1 lists the studies and the characteristics of the samples. Our search terms returned
34 studies, some of which did not report exact levels of performance, in which case we cal-
culated performance by pooling the values reported in the three CPM subtests (Andreou,
Galanopoulou, Gourgoulianis, Karapetsas, & Molyvdas, 2002), averaging the value given
for each participant (Cologon, Cupples, & Wyver, 2011; Cupples & Iacono, 2002), or con-
verting the IQ scores into raw scores and then into estimated mental ages (Pekkonen,
Osipova, Sauna-Aho, & Arvio, 2007). The study by Bello, Goharpey, Crewther, and Crewther
(2008) was excluded because it was impossible to derive exact performance levels from
their graph.
Some of the studies compared DS individuals with groups of TD children, usually
matched on the CPM test results or verbal abilities (measured with the Peabody Picture
Vocabulary Test; Dunn & Dunn, 1981). The years of publication of these studies ranged from
2001 to 2011 (i.e., with a lag of only 10 years).

Materials
The Colored Progressive Matrices test (Raven, Raven, & Court, 1998) is a standardized test
presenting 36 visual patterns with a piece missing from the bottom right-hand corner. These
patterns are grouped into three sets of 12 items each (A, Ab, B). For each visual pattern,
participants are asked to choose from among several pieces to complete the puzzle. They are
not allowed to use paper to work out any of the problems, and they are asked to answer each
question before moving on to the next picture. No time limits are imposed at any point. Par-
ticipants must attempt all 36 items, and their final scores are the sum of their correct answers
in the three sets. The individual’s IQ is then estimated using the norms in the manual (Raven
et al., 1998), distinguished by nationality.
TABLE 1.  Lists of the Selected Studies With Number of Participants, Mean Chronological Age (years; months) and Estimated IQ for Each
Study Included in the Analyses
Down ­Syndrome Typical ­Developing
Year of
Authors Publication Journal N Age IQ N Age IQ

Elliot, Weeks, & Gray 1990 Neuropsychologia 16 29;02 44

Laws, Buckley, Bird, MacDonald, 1995 Down Syndrome Research and 6 10;2 49
Flynn Effect and Down Syndrome

& Broadley (Group 1) Practice

Laws, Buckley, Bird, MacDonald, 1995 Down Syndrome Research and 6 11;5 45
& Broadley (Group 2) Practice
Laws, McDonald, & Buckley 1996 Down Syndrome Research and 27 11;9 50
Practice
Kernan & Sabsay 1996 Journal of Communication 28 27;4 53
Disorders
Moore, Clibbens, & Dennis 1998 Down Syndrome Research and 40 9;11 47
(Study 1) Practice
Moore, Clibbens, & Dennis 1998 Down Syndrome Research and 40 11;6 45
(Study 2) Practice
Cardoso-Martins & Frith 2001 Reading and Writing 33 23;6 51 33 7;2 110
Numminen, Service, Ahonen, 2001 Journal of Intellectual 15 41;8 44
& Ruoppila ­Disability Research
Andreou, Galanopoulou, 2002 Brain and Cognition 12 21;6 44
Gourgoulianins, Karapetsas, &
Molyvdas
Laws 2002 Journal of Child Psychology 16 11;8 48 16 4;6 100
and Psychiatry, and Allied
Disciplines
147

Cupples & Iacono 2002 Reading and Writing 7 9;6 49

(continued)
 TABLE 1.  (Continued)
148

Down ­Syndrome Typical ­Developing

Year of
Authors Publication Journal N Age IQ N Age IQ
Laws & Bishop 2003 Journal of Speech, ­Language, 19 15;11 48 35 5;11 100
and Hearing Research
Brock & Jarrold 2004 Journal of Speech, ­Language, 21 18;6 48 29 5;8 119
and Hearing Research
Zoia, Pelamatti, & Rumiati 2004 Brain and Cognition 11 23;6 46
Gunn & Jarrold 2004 Research in Developmental 39 13;0 48 50 5;11 90
Disabilities
Brock & Jarrold 2005 Journal of Child Psychology 32 17;7 48 36 6;1 122
and Psychiatry, and Allied
Disciplines
Purser & Jarrold 2005 Journal of Experimental Child 12 19;11 48 25 5;8 104
Psychology
Rowe, Lavender, & Turk 2006 The British Journal of ­Clinical 26 33;0 44
Psychology
Pekkonen, Osipova, Sauna-Aho, 2007 NeuroImage 10 51;0 52
& Arvio
Brock, Jarrold, Farran, Laws, & 2007 Cortex 13 13;1 48
Riby
Vicari, Verucci, & Carlesimo 2007 Journal of Intellectual 26 17;0 48 49 6;1 122
­Disability Research
Jarrold, Baddeley, & Philips 2007 NeuroImage 20 13;11 48 15 7;7 104
Ford & Rees 2008 BMC Pediatrics 15 12;2 45 27 5;2 90
Hippolyte, Barisnikov, Var den 2009 Journal of Intellectual 24 34;0 44
Linden, & Detraux ­Disability Research
Lanfranchi and Carretti
Jarrold, Thorn, & Stephens 2009 Journal of Experimental Child 21 20;10 45 61 6;3 113
Psychology
Lanfranchi, Carretti, Spanò, & 2009 Journal of Intellectual 34 12;6 48 34 4;5 104
Cornoldi ­Disability Research
Iacono, Torr, & Wong 2010 Research in Developmental 54 18;0 48
Disabilities
Facon & Nuchadee 2010 Journal of Intellectual 48 17;2 45 48 5;5 94
­Disability Research
Purser & Jarrold 2010 Quarterly Journal of 15 18;7 48 20 5;9 104
Flynn Effect and Down Syndrome

­Experimental Psychology
Carretti & Lanfranchi 2010 Journal of Intellectual 20 7;5 54 20 5;4 100
­Disability Research
Mosse & Jarrold 2010 Journal of Experimental Child 17 19;5 48 24 5;5 110
Psychology
Kozulin, Lebeer, Madella-Noja, 2010 Journal of Intellectual 46 8;7 49
Gonzalez, Jeffrey, Rosenthal, ­Disability Research
et al.
Cologon, Cupples, & Wyver 2011 American Journal 7 6;6 54
on ­Intellectual and
­Developmental Disabilities
Stojanovik 2011 Journal of Neurolinguistics 9 9;9 51 16 7;7 110
149
150 Lanfranchi and Carretti

RESULTS
Characteristics of the Studies
As mentioned before, from the search in the literature, 33 studies including measures of CPM
performance in individuals with DS were selected, with a total of 785 participants. Seventeen
of these studies compared DS individuals with TD children matched for CPM or verbal skills.
Five studies compared DS individuals with a group of children with other disabilities (general
intellectual disability, Williams syndrome, nonspecific learning difficulties, autism), and the
­remaining part of the studies did not include a control group. Given the paucity of studies
­involving individuals with other forms of atypical development, we chose to focus on TD partici-
pants and consider them as a control group; the total number of TD participants was 538.
The average sample size in the studies involving DS participants was 23 (SD 5 13,
range 6–54), and it was 28.3 (SD 5 15, range 8–61) in the studies that also included TD children.
The gender ratio was only available for 20 studies involving individuals with DS and for 7 stud-
ies including a TD sample. In those studies, the mean number of males was 9.7 (SD 5 5.4,
range 5 2–19) individuals with DS and 13.5 (SD 5 3.3, range 5 8–18 months) TD children.
The average chronological age was 222.28 months (SD 5 119.14, range 5 78–612 months)
in the DS sample and 71.49 months (SD 5 13.52, range 5 53–113 months) for the TD chil-
dren. The distribution between chronological age and year of publication was negative for
both groups: for the DS sample, r 5 2.09, p , .01; for the TD sample, r 5 2.19, p , .001 (see
Figure 1; i.e., more recent studies tended to include younger participants). Chronological age

2015

2010
Year of publication

2005

2000

1995

1990

0 200 400 600

Chronological age

Figure 1.  Distribution of chronological age and year of publication by groups. Dots
(DS group) and diamonds (TD group) represent observed data.
Flynn Effect and Down Syndrome 151

was negatively associated to IQ (r 5 2.205, p , .001) in DS sample, whereas positively in TD

sample (r 5 .357, p , .001).
The mean year of birth was calculated for the two groups from the year of publication
of the study and the mean age of the sample. Figure 2 shows the mean IQ scores per study
in the two groups for different years of birth: the correlation was positive for the DS sample
(r 5 .164, p , .01), and negative for the TD controls (r 5 2.126, p , .01).

Improvements in CPM Performance in the DS and TD Samples

To analyze the increase of performance in CPM in terms of IQ and raw score, we first com-
puted the correlations between the aforementioned variables, year of publication, and chron-
ological age. It is to note that correlations were computed from descriptive statistics of the
samples included in each paper and not from individual performance. Therefore, the number
of observations corresponded to the number of samples, which was 35; in fact, in the studies
by Laws, Buckley, Bird, McDonald, and Broadley (1995) and Moore, Clibbens, and Dennis
(1998), two independent groups of DS individuals were included. Since chronological age
might affect the height of the Flynn effect in the normal population, correlations were also
run by splitting the sample according to participant’s age (with a cutoff of 17 years old, see
Flynn, 2010). Furthermore, to better analyze the influence of chronological age on the in-
crease in CPM performance across the decades considered, we then ran multiple regression

140

120

100
IQ

80

60

40

1950 1955 1960 1965 1970 1975 1980 1985 1990 1995 2000 2005 2010
Year of birth

Figure 2.  Distribution of year of birth and IQ by group. Dots (DS group) and diamonds
(TD) represent observed data.
152 Lanfranchi and Carretti

analyses with IQ as dependent variable, and years of publication, chronological age, and the
interaction between the two as predictors.
Down Syndrome Group.1 To estimate the increase in cognitive performance, the correla-
tion between years of publication, estimated IQ, and CPM raw score were computed.
Table 2 reports the indexes of correlation. The correlations were positive but not signifi-
cant for all the measures, suggesting an increase in the level of estimated IQ and of perfor-
mance (in terms of raw score) in the DS group.
Because the high variability of the participants’ ages and to test the effect of age on the
Flynn effect, the whole sample was divided into two subsamples according to their age: the
younger comprised all the studies in which the mean age of participants was equal or younger
than 17 years and the older group with an age equal or older than 18 years. The younger
group consisted of 20 samples (taken from 18 studies) with participants having a mean age of
12 years (SD 5 3 months), whereas the older group comprised 15 samples (from 15 studies)
with a mean age of 27 years (SD 5 9 months).
The correlations computed on the younger sample highlighted a positive but marginally
significant increase in both raw score and IQ; in contrast, in the case of older subgroup, the
correlations were positive but not significant in the case of CPM raw and estimated IQ.
Interpreting the correlations according to Cohen’s guidelines (1988), it resulted that the cor-
relations can be considered small (range 5 .10–.30) in the case of the total sample and of the older
group; in contrast, the younger group’s index falls in the medium effect size (range 5 .30–.50).
To clarify the role of chronological age, we ran a multiple regression analysis with IQ as
the dependent variable, and years of publication, chronological age, and the interaction be-
tween the two as predictors. The predictors were standardized within each group. The model,
however, was not significant.
Typically Developing Group. The correlations on TD sample are reported in Table 2. On
one hand, a positive trend was observed for CPM raw score; however, no increase in es-
timated IQ was found. As for the DS group, none of the predictors was significant in the
regression model.

TABLE 2.  Correlations Between Raven Performance (Raw Score and Estimated IQ), Year
of Publication, and Chronological Age in the DS Sample, Distinguished by Age, and TD
Sample
Year of Publication
Total Younger Older
Sample Sample Sample

DS sample Raven Raw score .194 .349a .128

CPM
Estimated IQ .196 .364b 2.006
TD sample Raven Raw core .153
CPM
Estimated IQ .012

p 5 .061 one-sided test. bp 5 .052 one-sided test.

a
Flynn Effect and Down Syndrome 153

DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION

The main goal of this study was to analyze the presence of Flynn effect in nonverbal IQ
in individuals with DS. To analyze this issue, we considered the performance in the CPM
test, which relies little on verbal skills and chiefly measuring general cognitive abilities. We
focused on CPM performance because research has demonstrated major impairments in DS
individuals’ verbal cognitive domain, whereas they demonstrate a relatively unimpaired com-
petency in the visuospatial domain (see Lanfranchi et al., 2004). This appears also from their
lifelong development; in fact, a recent review by Carr (2005) demonstrated a steeper decline in
DS individuals’ verbal components of intelligence than in their nonverbal components.
The increase in CPM performance, expressed in terms of estimated IQ and raw score, was
analyzed in the published literature. Correlation analyses on the DS and TD samples identi-
fied showed a null association between IQ and years of publication. However, a possible bias-
ing effect of chronological age distribution emerged in both the samples because the more
recent studies tended to involve younger participants. Although chronological age correlated
positively with IQ in the TD group, it was negatively associated with IQ in the DS sample;
in studying the gains in IQ across decades, it would therefore be important to consider how
they vary depending on the participants’ age. To further examine how chronological age influ-
ences the improvement in CPM performance across decades, the DS sample was split into
two age groups: a (nearly) significant positive correlation that met Cohen’s criteria (1988) for
a medium effect size between IQ score and years of publication was found for the younger
group, whereas there was no such improvement in the estimated IQ in the older group.
As for the results in the TD sample, the set of studies considered failed to reveal any
tendency for the estimated IQ to improve. This is consistent with more recent reports on
the Flynn effect in the normal population, indicating an inversion of the trend and a decline
rather than an improvement in IQ scores in recent decades (see e.g., Sundet et al., 2004;
Teasdale & Owen, 2008). Some caveats should be mentioned, however. We considered a very
limited number of studies, in which the TD participants were selected to match the char-
acteristics of an atypical population so their variability in terms of CPM performance was
probably not representative of an unselected normal sample, and the magnitude of the Flynn
effect was probably lower as a consequence. In addition, the studies involving TD participants
referred only to one decade, unlike the two decades spanned by the DS sample. This makes it
difficult to compare the results directly.
To sum up, our findings suggest that there is a tendency to Flynn effect in individuals
with DS, but this depends on their age: only in participants up to 17 years old IQ is positively
related to year of publication. This is the opposite of what happens in the normal population
(see Flynn, 2010), although it is worth noting that, in Flynn’s work, the greater differences
in IQ gains between children and adult were found in verbal subtest and, in particular, in
vocabulary one; a measure that clearly increases as individuals grow older and plateaus in late
adulthood (Park et al., 2002), the opposite of what happens to nonverbal abilities. It should
also be noted that an age-related decline in IQ has been demonstrated in individuals with DS
(e.g. Dykens et al., 2000).
The relationship (although marginally significant) between Raven performance (expressed
both in terms of raw score and estimated IQ) and year of publication in younger individuals
can be further explained by the fact that educational practices for individuals with intellectual
disabilities and DS in particular have greatly improved in the last 20 years. In Europe and the
154 Lanfranchi and Carretti

United States, numerous programs have been designed and developed for this population to
improve their cognitive abilities such as memory, language, and logical thinking as well as
academic abilities, such as reading and math. Such programs are more effective the earlier
they are used, and they are likely to have led to a greater improvement in the IQ of younger
DS individuals than in the older sample.
It is nonetheless important to remember that this positive relationship between IQ
and year of publication did not imply a less severe intellectual disability: the IQs of the DS
individuals considered here were still in the range of moderate intellectual disability (a
finding supported by other recent studies; for a review, see Dykens et al., 2000). This would
mean that more formal schooling, or generally better educational opportunities and a bet-
ter social life can provide intellectually disabled individuals with more opportunities for
cognitive growth. Such opportunities can be invaluable because people without intellectual
impairments have plenty of such opportunities and can be seen to benefit from them. Our
results should be interpreted with caution because the number of the studies are different.
However, as reported in the footnote, even when controlling the differences in sample size,
the differences between groups did not change much. Of course, more research is needed
to better clarify the Flynn effect in individuals with DS. In particular, researchers should
note that this article considered only a relatively short period of time (from 1990 to 2011)
because very few studies conducted before 1990 assessed the intelligence of individuals
with DS using the CPM test (and many pre-1990 studies failed to meet the criteria for the
present study). We consequently considered only a 20-year interval, whereas studies on the
Flynn effect usually span a broader period of time for the typically developing population.
The shorter period covered by our analysis could mean that the Flynn effect in individuals
with Down syndrome was underestimated, or we may have failed to consider other aspects
important to our understanding of this effect.

NOTE
1. To control the differences in sample size between the studies, the same analyses were run weigh-
ing the contribution of each study based on the number of participants examined. Results are substan-
tially the same for what concerns correlations. In contrast from the regression analyses, it emerged a
significant contribution of chronological age (b 5 2.233, p , .01) and of the interaction terms (chrono-
logical age 3 years of publication, b 5 2.251, p , .01) with 17% of explained variance in the case of
Down syndrome participants. For TD group, only chronological age (b 5 .353, p , .01) contributed to
explained variance.

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Correspondence regarding this article should be directed to Barbara Carretti, Department of General
Psychology, University of Padova, Padova, Italy. E-mail: barbara.carretti@unipd.it
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