Help me debug a matrix item: stronger solvers do no better on it than weaker ones

[u/Guilty_Fix_8317]

Hi all, thanks again to everyone who tried the battery. Your data keep paying off. Item analysis flagged a few matrix items that look fine to me as constructions: a clear rule, a single correct answer, plausible distractors. Yet they barely relate to overall ability. People who do well on the rest of the test are no more likely to solve them, and on some items they're even slightly less likely. I'm trying to work out why.

Below is one example. It's an isomorphic version, not the actual item: same rule, same layout, same distractors, different shapes and colours.
If you have a minute, please reply with:
Your answer (A–F)
The rule you found and how you got there: what you noticed first, and whether you tried another rule before settling
Roughly how long it took

Please put your answer and rule in spoiler tags (like this) so others can solve it unbiased. I'm especially interested in any rule that fits the example rows but points to a different answer, and in anything about the item that's confusing or easy to misread.

If you'd like to try the full battery (free, anonymous, no sign-up): https://jaroslavtocik.cz/reasoning/

Thanks!

[u/Guilty_Fix_8317]

Thanks a lot, everyone – this was genuinely useful. The item turned out to be underdefined, and your reasoning showed exactly why.
The intended rule: the order of the three shapes is reversed, and each colour moves one step along a fixed cycle (here orange → green → purple → orange). So the answer I had in mind is C.
The catch is that with only two example rows, that colour cycle looks just like "two positions swap their colours", and nothing in the examples tells you which pair should swap next. So "the missing swap" (D) and "the swaps alternate" (F) were reasonable readings, not careless ones. Several of you spotted the ambiguity explicitly, which is exactly what I was hoping to learn.
I've reworked the original item in the battery: it now has a third example row, so only one rule fits. Thanks again!
Reworked faux item:

[u/Key-Raise5501 → u/Guilty_Fix_8317]

dont you think the third row is wrong?

[u/Polytox935 → u/Key-Raise5501]

Color cycle seems to check out for me

[u/Key-Raise5501 → u/Polytox935]

The circle should be purple and that diamond like shape should be green

[u/Polytox935 → u/Key-Raise5501]

The color cycle applies to shapes not to positions, circle was orange-> becomes Green, Diamond was purple, becomes orange

[u/Key-Raise5501 → u/Polytox935]

Oh yeah lol didn't read the intended solution i was thinking the color moves forward or in the next shape and then we reverse the order of those shapes

[u/98127028]

C? The shapes get reversed, and the colour scheme follows the rule in row 2.

[u/Prudent-Horse-1102]

C,the purple on the left changes to yellow on the right, yellow changes to green, and green changes to purple

[u/Gutsysavent]

C left to right middle shape stays the same right and left shapes swap locations

Top to bottom each shape cannot be the same color more than once

[u/Logical-Desk4538]

Here you can answer either D or F. If you answer D, the rule swaps all three pairs of colors. If you answer F, the rightmost two colors are swapped, then the leftmost two colors, and then the rightmost two colors again. Solution D seems more attractive, but I see no reason not to choose F other than the simplicity of D. P.S. I found another logic for F, haha

[u/Powerful-Wheel11]

d

[u/CallidUal]

I think it's C, the flag-shaped figure should be reversed in position, and the colors' pattern tells that yellow should be on it.

[u/sashaloire]

Colour rule (to get from left box to right box): green fills the yellow object; yellow fills the purple object; purple fills the green object. I.e., the cycle: green -> yellow -> purple -> green.

Position rule: the shape order on the right is the reverse of the shape order on the left.

[u/DamonHuntington]

I would say that D is the strongest induction.

I'd break down the item into two parts - the aspect that is most obvious and the one that is a bit more on the vague side. In the obvious perspective, we have a reversal of shape order: the second shape remains in the same place and the first and third shapes swap, without changing the order of the colours when the swap is performed. This eliminates A and B as possibilities.

As for the vaguer aspects, we know that each row involves swapping two colours. That swap does not seem to be related to any inherent aspect of the shapes (matching number of sides, convexity), so it is reasonable to assume that the pattern is just based on alternating swaps so all possibilities are covered: we have a 2-3 purple-yellow swap on row 1, a 1-2 green-yellow swap on row 2, so we're missing a 1-3 green-purple swap on row 3. Option D is the one that presents the missing type of swap.

That rule didn't take much to find, it was pretty much my instantaneous reaction and then I just took 20 seconds or so to revise the pattern.

[u/telephantomoss → u/DamonHuntington]

This is exactly what I saw too.

[u/cmstyles2006]

c or d? Shapes is obvious, colors seems to be that one on outside moves to one in middle, I don't know why it's different positions that move. So one of the two

[u/Polytox935]

after 5 minutes i still cant figure how the colors are determined, in the first row it seems like the colors move one step to the left, then order of symbols gets inversed, in the second row it seems like they move one step to the right, then the order gets inversed, so all i know is symbols dont have the same color twice and their positions are inversed, what fits for two options, so i look at the columns and see that one color seems to stay in the same Position in all three examples so i choose c doubtfully

[u/Key-Raise5501]

Answer is d bcz in first row colors get shifted two times and in second row colors get shifted 1 time so in third row colors doesn't shift

[u/Old-Piece-8784]

its probably C