Longitudinal evidence linking processing speed to the development of reasoning.

Age-related change in processing speed has been linked directly to increases in reasoning as well as indirectly via increases in the capacity of working memory (WM). Most of the evidence linking change in speed to reasoning has come from cross-sectional research; in this article we present the findings from a 2½-year longitudinal study of 277 6- to-13-year-olds. On three occasions, speed of information processing was assessed with Visual Matching and Cross Out; WM was assessed with reading, listening, backward digit, alphabet, and operation span tasks; and nonverbal reasoning was assessed with Raven's progressive matrices.

VI. NIH Toolbox Cognition Battery (CB): measuring processing speed.

This chapter focuses on the Toolbox Pattern Comparison Processing Speed Test, which was developed to assess processing speed within the NIH Toolbox Cognition Battery (CB). We describe the development of the test, highlighting its utility in children. In addition, we examine descriptive data, test-retest reliability, validity, and preliminary work creating a composite index of processing speed.

Influences of credibility of testimony and strength of statistical evidence on children's and adolescents' reasoning.

According to dual-process models that include analytic and heuristic modes of processing, analytic processing is often expected to become more common with development. Consistent with this view, on reasoning problems, adolescents are more likely than children to select alternatives that are backed by statistical evidence. It is shown here that this pattern depends on the quality of the statistical evidence and the quality of the testimonial that is the typical alternative to statistical evidence.

Cultural differences in the development of processing speed.

The aim of the present work was to examine cultural differences in the development of speed of information processing. Four samples of US children (N = 509) and four samples of East Asian children (N = 661) completed psychometric measures of processing speed on two occasions. Analyses of the longitudinal data indicated that, although processing speed was comparable among US and East Asian children at the youngest age (~4.

Processing speed in childhood and adolescence: longitudinal models for examining developmental change.

The primary aim of the present study was to examine longitudinal models to determine the function that best describes developmental change in processing speed during childhood and adolescence. In one sample, children and adolescents (N= 503) were tested twice over an average interval of 2 years on two psychometric measures of processing speed: Visual Matching and Cross Out. In another sample, children and adolescents (N= 277) were tested four times, every 6 months, on Cross Out.

Speed of processing, working memory, and language impairment in children.

Purpose: Children with language impairment (LI) often perform below the level of typically developing peers on measures of both processing speed and working memory. This study examined the relationship between these 2 types of measures and attempted to determine whether such measures can account for the LI itself.

Method: Fourteen-year-old children with LI and their typically developing peers participated in a wide range of processing speed and working memory tasks and were administered a comprehensive language test battery.

Response time in 14-year-olds with language impairment.

Purpose: To determine whether children with language impairment were slower than typically developing peers at age 14, and whether slowing, if present, was similar across task domains; whether differences in response time (RT) across domains were the same for children with specific language impairment (SLI) and nonspecific language impairment (NLI); and whether RT performance at age 9 predicted performance at age 14.

Method: Fourteen-year-old children with SLI (n = 20), NLI (n = 15), and typical development (NLD; n = 31) were administered several linguistic and nonlinguistic speeded tasks. The children had received the same tasks at age 9.

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.

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.