Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2016 Nov;19(6):1067-1074.
doi: 10.1111/desc.12352. Epub 2015 Nov 5.

Longitudinal evidence linking processing speed to the development of reasoning

Robert V Kail  1 , Arne Lervåg  2 , Charles Hulme  3
Affiliations

Longitudinal evidence linking processing speed to the development of reasoning

Robert V Kail et al. Dev Sci. 2016 Nov.

Erratum in

  • Erratum.
    [No authors listed] [No authors listed] Dev Sci. 2018 Mar;21(2). doi: 10.1111/desc.12655. Dev Sci. 2018. PMID: 29521033 No abstract available.

Abstract

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. The results provided consistent evidence of direct links from processing speed to reasoning but inconsistent evidence for indirect links from speed to WM to reasoning. These findings suggest that variations in processing speed may constrain the development of reasoning, directly and perhaps indirectly. A video abstract of this article can be viewed at: https://youtu.be/nc0VlFdi468.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Models expressing relations between processing speed, WM and reasoning, using data from Times 1, 2, and 4. The top panel depicts a theoretically neutral full model (Model 0) in which all three constructs were linked to the other two within each time point and each construct predicted the other two at the next time point. The bottom panel depicts Model 1, in which change in reasoning reflects changes in speed and WM. VM = Visual Matching.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Models expressing relations between processing speed, WM and reasoning, using data from Times 1, 3, and 4. The top panel depicts a theoretically neutral full model (Model 0) in which all three constructs were linked to the other two within each time point and each construct predicted the other two at the next time point. The bottom panel depicts Model 1, in which change in reasoning reflects changes in speed and WM. VM = Visual Matching. A similar version of this model with constrained paths from Speed and WM at Time 3 to Reasoning at Time 4 showed significant coefficients (β = .20, p < .001).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Allen GL, Ondraceck PJ. Age-sensitive cognitive abilities related to children’s acquisition of spatial knowledge. Developmental Psychology. 1995;31:934–945. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0012-1649.31.6.934. - DOI
    1. Clark CAC, Nelson JM, Garza J, Sheffield TD, Wiebe SA, Espy KA. Frontiers in Psychology. 2014;5:107. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2014.00107. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Coyle TR, Pillow DR, Snyder AC, Kochunov P. Processing speed mediates the development of general intelligence (g) in adolescence. Psychological Science. 2011;22:1265–1269. doi: 10.1177/0956797611418243. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Daneman M, Carpenter PA. Individual differences in working memory and reading. Journal of Verbal Learning and Verbal Behavior. 1980;19:450–466. doi:10.1016/S0022-5371(80)90312-6.
    1. De Alwis D, Hale S, Myerson J. Extended cascade models of age and individual differences in children’s fluid intelligence. Intelligence. 2014;46:84–93. doi: 10.1016/j.intell.2014.05.008.

Publication types

LinkOut - more resources