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This study examined the validity of a visual inspection time (IT) task as a measure of processing speed (PS) in a sample of children with and without cerebral palsy (CP). IT tasks measure visualization speed without focusing on the motor response time to indicate decision making about the properties of those stimuli.
Methods:
Participants were 113 children ages 8–16, including 45 with congenital CP, and 68 typically developing peers. Measures were a standard visual IT task that required dual key responding and a modified version using an assistive technology button with response option scanning. Performance on these measures was examined against traditional Wechsler PS measures (Coding, Symbol Search).
Results:
IT performance shared considerable variance with traditional paper-pencil PS measures for the group with CP, but not necessarily in the typically developing group. Concurrent validity was found for both IT task versions with traditional PS measures in the group with CP. IT classification accuracy for lowered PS showed modest sensitivity and good specificity particularly for the modified IT task.
Conclusions:
As measures of PS in children with CP who are unable to validly participate in traditional PS tasks, IT tasks demonstrate adequate concurrent validity and may serve as a beneficial alternative measure of PS in this population.
Research on human intelligence from a psychological perspective has mainly focused on higher-order cognitive abilities leading to the development and validation of psychometric measures of intelligence such as the IQ test. Despite the success of this movement, there is a lack of understanding on how intelligence measured by IQ tests develops. As such, recent research has focused on studying the basic underlying processes of intelligence. These measures are often referred to as measures of processing speed and collectively as elementary cognitive tasks (ECTs). In this chapter, we review research on two of the most prominent ECTs found in the intelligence literature: reaction time (RT) and inspection time (IT). We describe these measures and variants of these measures in detail and report on studies examining relationships between RT, IT, and intelligence. We describe theories relating to these measures and attempt to understand whether relationships between RT, IT, and intelligence are best described by top-down (strategic) or bottom-up (basic) processes. We outline exciting new areas using pharmacological and neuroimaging techniques that could contribute to this body of knowledge.
Different terms have described quick responding, processing speed, cognitive speed, psychometric speed, and perceptual speed. Methodology derived from speeded tasks assumes that cognitive processes intervening between stimulus and response can at least be relatively isolated by appropriate manipulation of experimental conditions. The most comprehensive body of data assembled to test the theory that processes responsible for speed on elementary cognitive tasks (ECTs) are the same as those responsible for complex intelligent actions from Jensen's studies of simple and choice reaction times (RTs). Although the extent to which inspection time (IT) and RT measure the same or different processes is still an open question, there is compelling evidence that correlation between IQ and processing speed estimated by IT or choice RT reflects shared genetic influences. There is considerable evidence that white matter lesions are associated with slower processing speed and poorer performance on tests of attention and memory.
This chapter discusses measuring of intelligence by Francis Galton, J. McK. Cattell, and Alfred Binet. Charles Spearman abhorred the program that would separate the mind into a loose confederation of independent faculties of learning, memory and attention. Although most intelligence researchers today probably accept that the general factor is to stay, they remain sharply divided on its explanation. These disagreements go well beyond a rejection of Spearman's specific suggestions that g is either mental energy or the eduction of relations and correlates. Spearman saw that he needed to provide a psychological or (better still) a neurobiological explanation of g. The two favorite paradigms for this program of research were inspection time (IT) and choice reaction time (RT). Aided by the new technologies of brain imaging, research on intelligence, working memory, and other so-called executive functions has begun to point to some of the brain structures common to them all.
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