The accuracy of the mean of two estimates was compared with the accuracy of a single independent estimate from the same subject. A subject was asked to estimate the size of one attribute of a constant stimulus, e.g., the total of a set of numbers. The same subject was also asked to give an estimate for an upper and lower bound on the size of the…

The ability to allocate attentional resources to relevant aspects of a stimulus event is a critical skill needed for efficient information processing. Evidence suggests that this ability to focus on relevant information without interference is dependent on the nature of the stimulus structure of the information to be processed. To test the…

In this study, cognitive processes hypothesized to be relevant to the digit symbol task of the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS) were examined. Fifty-two undergraduate education students were divided into four groups to receive four different treatments. All the students took the digit symbol test, followed immediately by a test of their…

Five experiments involving a total of 268 college students indicate that people are especially likely to overinfer quantity or probability from numerosity when they are asked to make inherently difficult judgments, when they are asked to render judgments while performing a concurrent task, and when they are forced to make rapid judgments. (SLD)

Comparison of the mental rotation skill of mathematically talented male (n=152) and female (n=143) high school juniors under both timed and extended time conditions showed higher performance by males under both conditions, but the male advantage decreased substantially when the effect of time was minimized. (Author/DB)

To determine whether gifted children are faster than average students on all behaviors sampled or only on academic subjects, 46 gifted and 30 average children were tested. The time rates for tapping, walking, reading, answering, and calculating were determined. All children were from grades 4 through 6; median IQ of the gifted was 138, and for the…

Composing in writing is a complex psycholinguistic process about which very little is known. Nearly all of the research on composing in writing has looked at the written product, not at the process by which it came into being. This document reviews past research on the composing process and proposes a study in which video cameras would record…

A meta-analysis of 79 studies of reading performance of low achievers with and without learning disabilities found students with the learning disabilities label performed considerably worse on reading measures. Use of timed tests greatly increased the difference in reading performance between underachievers and students with the learning…

A case study examined one college student's poor performances during timed-writing sessions to develop a method to allow students to maintain the quality and ease in writing they achieve in other writing situations. The student, assigned to write a movie review, volunteered to participate in two 90 minute talk-aloud protocol sessions to examine…

We consider human performance on an optimal stopping problem where people are presented with a list of numbers independently chosen from a uniform distribution. People are told how many numbers are in the list, and how they were chosen. People are then shown the numbers one at a time, and are instructed to choose the maximum, subject to the…

As children develop, they process information more rapidly. The primary aim of this study was to determine whether processing speed in the language domain develops at the same rate as global processing speed. A second aim was to determine the stability of processing speed throughout childhood and adolescence. Children (N = 116) were tested on 10…

Ninety-two subjects solved a series of problems without enough time to finish and worked at a pace and in an order determined by the experimenter (Experimenter- Paced) or at their own pace and order under self-administered time deadlines (Self-Paced). Self-pacing resulted in superior performance on rote and poorer performance on cognitive problems…

This study investigated the relationship between measures of speed of cognitive information processing and intelligence test scores. Cognitive processing measures were significantly related to IQ scores. Reaction time tests measure cognitive operations basic to intelligence, and individual differences in intelligence are partly due to variability…

Three experiments focused on the function relating children's response time to adults' response time in corresponding conditions. In all experiments, children's response times increased in a linear manner as a function of adults' response times. (BB)

In a study of the relationship between speed of information processing and general intelligence, vocational college students (50 black males and 56 white males) took eight different reaction time tests measuring the speed with which individuals perform various elementary cognitive processes, and a group test of scholastic aptitude (the Armed…