In this paper, we investigate the role of response fluency on a well-known
intelligence test, Raven's Advanced Progressive Matrices (APM) test. Findin
g rules that govern the items is critical in solving this test. Finding the
se rules is conceptualized as sampling rules from a (statistical) rule dist
ribution until the correct one is attained. Response fluency is then seen a
s generation speed, or the speed at which a person generates (samples) rule
s from this distribution. We develop a test that isolates this speed of sam
pling variable, and a method to check whether this variable was adequately
isolated. The score on this test is then compared with performance on the A
PM test. It is found that the speed at which people sample from such distri
butions is an important variable in solving APM items.