Task Engagement in Matrix Reasoning Performance: A Cross-Cultural Investigation in China and the United Kingdom

Matrix reasoning tasks remain among the most widely used instruments for assessing abstract reasoning and are often assumed to be culturally neutral. However, this assumption has been challenged by studies reporting significant cross-cultural variation in performance on nonverbal matrix reasoning tasks, even when groups show comparable performance on verbal measures of general cognitive ability. One plausible reason is that many matrix reasoning tasks rely primarily on accuracy-based performance metrics while providing limited insight into response timing and task engagement during problem solving. The present study examined the Matrix Reasoning Item Bank (MaRs-IB), a new online matrix reasoning instrument integrating both accuracy and response time, in 458 participants from China and the UK. Results demonstrated strong psychometric properties across both cultural contexts, while also revealing systematic between-group differences in overall task performance. Chinese participants were generally slower but more accurate, whereas UK participants responded more quickly with lower overall accuracy. Rather than reflecting a classical speed–accuracy trade-off, these patterns may indicate cross-cultural variation in persistence, deliberative engagement, and the metacognitive regulation of cognitive effort during reasoning tasks. In particular, Chinese participants allocated more time before responding and persisted longer on challenging task items, whereas UK participants demonstrated relatively faster responding and shorter response times on more challenging items. These findings suggest that cross-cultural differences in matrix reasoning performance may reflect not only differences in observed performance levels, but also variation in how participants allocate time and sustain engagement during cognitively demanding tasks.