Robert Kail

Processing speed as a mental capacity

Throughout the lifespan, there are pronounced age differences in speed of processing, differences that are consistently related to performance on measures of higher-order cognition. In this article, we examine domain-specific and global explanations of these age differences in processing speed; we conclude that although experience can play a role in age differences in speed, there is also evidence that a general mechanism limits speeded performance. We also review research that shows the influence of processing speed on the quality of performance on nonspeeded tasks such as reasoning and memory. We suggest that speed of processing should be viewed as a fundamental part of the architecture of the cognitive system as it develops across the entire lifespan.

Cross–Cultural Similarities in the Predictors of Reading Acquisition

Measures of Chinese character/English word recognition, phonological awareness, speeded naming, visual-spatial skill, and processing speed were administered to 190 kindergarten students in Hong Kong and 128 kindergarten and grade 1 students in the United States. Across groups, the strongest predictor of reading itself was phonological awareness; visual processing did not predict reading. For both groups, speed of processing strongly predicted speeded naming, visual processing, and phonological awareness. Despite diversities of culture, language, and orthography to be learned, models of early reading development were remarkably similar across cultures and first and second language orthographies.

Processing speed, naming speed, and reading.

With increasing age, children name familiar objects more rapidly, and these naming times are related to reading ability. The aim of this research was to determine if age-related change in naming time reflects (a) automtic access of familiar names due to greater familiarity with the named objects or (b) global change in speed of processing. To distinguish these explanations, 144 8- to 23-year-olds were administered measures of global processing time, naming time, and reading ability

The Role of Speed of Processing, Rapid Naming, and Phonological Awareness in Reading Achievement

This study investigated the role of speed of processing, rapid naming, and phonological awareness in reading achievement. Measures of response time in motor, visual, lexical, grammatical, and phonological tasks were administered to 279 children in third grade. Measures of rapid object naming, phonological awareness, and reading achievement were given in second and fourth grades. Reading group comparisons indicated that poor readers were proportionally slower than good readers across response time measures and on the rapid object naming task. These results suggest that some poor readers have a general deficit in speed of processing and that their problems in rapid object naming are in part a reflection of this deficit. Hierarchical regression analyses further showed that when considered along with IQ and phonological awareness, speed of processing explained unique variance in reading achievement. This finding suggests that a speed of processing deficit may be an “extraphonological” factor in some reading disabilities.

The locus of sex differences in spatial ability

College men and women judged whether pairs of stimuli were identical or mirror images. One stimulus of a pair was presented upright; the other was rotated 0°–150° from the vertical. The stimuli were either alphanumeric symbols or unfamiliar letter-like characters of the type found on the Primary Mental Abilities Spatial Relations Test. For each individual, the linear function relating response latency to degree of rotation was computed. The slope of this function was steeper for women than for men. Further, the distribution of slopes was more variable among women, with approximately 30% falling outside the range of distribution for men. Women and men were quite similar in the accuracy of their judgments, the intercepts of the latency functions, and the precision with which the linear function characterized the latency data. It is suggested that the sex difference in the slope of the rotation function may reflect differences in strategies of mental rotation.

Processing time declines exponentially during childhood and adolescence.

One hundred ninety-two 7.5- to 21-year-olds and 384 adults (17- to 43-years-olds) were tested on six speeded tasks: a) a simple response time task in which they released a button upon presentation of a stimulus, b) a tapping task in which they pushed a button as rapidly as possible for 5 s, c) a pegboard task in which they transferred 10 pegs from one row to another, d) a modified form of the coding subtest from the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children (WISC), e) a matching task in which they judged if pairs of pictures were identical physically or in name, and f) a mental addition task in which they judged the accuracy of problems such as 2+3=6

Speed of Information Processing: Developmental Change and Links to Intelligence

Abstract This article explores the nature and consequences of developmental change in speed of information processing. The first part of the article summarizes evidence indicating that age differences in processing speed reflect developmental change in a global mechanism that limits processing speed on most tasks. The second part of the article describes evidence that suggests a role for processing speed in the development of intelligence. The article concludes with some implications of these findings for theories and assessment of intelligence.

Processing speed, exposure to print, and naming speed

The aim of the present research was to determine the role of reading-related experience and processing speed on the time it took for children to name familiar stimuli. A total of 168 children, aged 7 to 13, were administered measures of global processing speed, title and author recognition, naming time, and reading ability. Naming times were predicted by age-related change in processing time but not by reading experience (as assessed by author and title recognition). The results are discussed in terms of the factors responsible for the relation between naming speed and reading.

Developmental functions for speeds of cognitive processes

In Experiment 1, 8- to 21-year-olds were tested on a visual search task in which they determined whether a target digit was present in a set of one to five digits and a memory search task in which they determined whether a target digit was a member of a previously presented set of one to five digits. Increases with age in speeds of visual and memory search were both described well by exponential functions, and the rate of developmental change was similar for the two processes. In Experiment 2, 8- to 22-year-olds were tested on a memory search task, a mental rotation task in which they judged whether a stimulus presented in various orientations was a letter or a mirror image of a letter, an analogical reasoning task in which they judged whether sets of pictures were related to one another according to the same rule, and a mental addition task in which they judged the accuracy of problems such as 2 + 3 = 6. Here, too, for three of the four tasks developmental change was described well by exponential functions with a common rate of change. Results are interpreted in terms of a central mechanism that limits speeded performance and that changes with age.

Processing Speed, Speech Rate, and Memory.

In each of 2 studies, 24 nine-year-olds and 24 adults were administered measures of memory and measures of processing speed. In addition, in Study 2, articulation rate was measured. Age was correlated positively with memory but was correlated negatively with processing speed and articulation rate. The results of path analyses were consistent with the hypothesis that age and processing speed independently contribute to articulation rate, which determines memory