The Effect of Retest Practice on the Speed-Ability Relationship

2004 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 24-31 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sybille Rockstroh ◽  
Karl Schweizer

Effects of four retest-practice sessions separated by 2 h intervals on the relationship between general intelligence and four reaction time tasks (two memory tests: Sternberg's memory scanning, Posner's letter comparison; and two attention tests: continuous attention, attention switching) were examined in a sample of 83 male participants. Reaction times on all tasks were shortened significantly. The effects were most pronounced with respect to the Posner paradigm and smallest with respect to the Sternberg paradigm. The relationship to general intelligence changed after practice for two reaction time tasks. It increased to significance for continuous attention and decreased for the Posner paradigm. These results indicate that the relationship between psychometric intelligence and elementary cognitive tasks depends on the ability of skill acquisition. In the search for the cognitive roots of intelligence the concept of learning seems to be of importance.

1979 ◽  
Vol 48 (1) ◽  
pp. 107-115 ◽  
Author(s):  
Armand V. Cardello

An experiment was conducted to compare visual reaction time and visual brightness within the same subjects. Simple reaction times and magnitude estimates of brightness were obtained in response to 1000-msec. flashes of 60.7, 67.5, 76.4, 85.1, and 93.4 dB re 10−10L white light. The relationship between reaction time and stimulus intensity was best described by a negative logarithmic function, while the relationship between magnitude estimates of brightness and stimulus intensity was best described by a power function. Linear correlations between reaction times and magnitude estimates indicated that visual reaction time and brightness are not proportional within all subjects. Previous reports of proportionality between these two measures were discussed as possibly being the result of inappropriate cross-experiment comparisons.


2012 ◽  
Vol 108 (4) ◽  
pp. 1025-1031 ◽  
Author(s):  
Enrico Schulz ◽  
Laura Tiemann ◽  
Viktor Witkovsky ◽  
Paul Schmidt ◽  
Markus Ploner

Pain signals threat and initiates motor responses to avoid harm. The transformation of pain into a motor response is thus an essential part of pain. Here, we investigated the neural mechanisms subserving the sensorimotor transformation of pain at the cortical level by using electroencephalography. In a simple reaction time experiment, brief painful stimuli were delivered to the left hand of healthy human subjects who responded with button presses of the right hand. The results show that the simple reaction time task was associated with neuronal responses at delta/theta, alpha/beta, and gamma frequencies. The analysis of the relationship between neuronal activity and response speed revealed that gamma oscillations, which were temporally coupled to the painful stimuli, but not temporally coupled to the motor response, predicted reaction times. Lateralization of gamma oscillations indicates that they originate from motor areas rather than from sensory areas. We conclude that gamma oscillations are involved in the sensorimotor transformation of pain whose efficiency they reflect. We hypothesize that the relationship between stimulus-locked gamma oscillations and reaction times reflects a direct thalamo-motor route of nociceptive information that is central to the biological function of pain.


1991 ◽  
Vol 73 (3) ◽  
pp. 1035-1043 ◽  
Author(s):  
John H. Kranzler

Humphreys (1989) hypothesized that psychometric g is more highly correlated with the number of response errors on elementary cognitive tasks than with the reaction time (RT) measures themselves. Although Humphreys' hypothesis may well hold for relatively complex RT tasks, results of a recent study do not substantiate his hypothesis with regard to some of the simplest tasks. In this study, the average correlation ( r) between g and number of response errors was .05, compared to -.20 for median RT and -.23 for intraindividual differences in RT (measured as the standard deviation of RTs over trials). Even after correction for attenuation, the average r between g and errors is lower (.02) than the average correlations between g and the RT measures.


1996 ◽  
Vol 26 (2) ◽  
pp. 135-147 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephen A. Petrill ◽  
Dasen Luo ◽  
Lee A. Thompson ◽  
Douglas K. Detterman

2010 ◽  
Vol 43 (1) ◽  
pp. 113-123 ◽  
Author(s):  
DREW M. THOMAS

SummaryIn the early 1990s, psychologist Richard Lynn published papers documenting average reaction times and decision times in samples of nine-year-olds taken from across the world. After summarizing these data, Lynn interpreted his results as evidence of national and racial differences in decision time and general intelligence. Others have also interpreted Lynn's data as evidence of racial differences in decision time and intelligence. However, comparing Lynn's summaries with his original reports shows that Lynn misreported and omitted some of his own data. Once these errors are fixed the rankings of nations in Lynn's datasets are unstable across different decision time measures. This instability, as well as within-race heterogeneity and between-race overlap in decision times, implies that Lynn's reaction time data do not permit generalizations about the decision times and intelligence of people of different races.


2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 18
Author(s):  
Benjamin Goecke ◽  
Florian Schmitz ◽  
Oliver Wilhelm

Performance in elementary cognitive tasks is moderately correlated with fluid intelligence and working memory capacity. These correlations are higher for more complex tasks, presumably due to increased demands on working memory capacity. In accordance with the binding hypothesis, which states that working memory capacity reflects the limit of a person’s ability to establish and maintain temporary bindings (e.g., relations between items or relations between items and their context), we manipulated binding requirements (i.e., 2, 4, and 6 relations) in three choice reaction time paradigms (i.e., two comparison tasks, two change detection tasks, and two substitution tasks) measuring mental speed. Response time distributions of 115 participants were analyzed with the diffusion model. Higher binding requirements resulted in generally reduced efficiency of information processing, as indicated by lower drift rates. Additionally, we fitted bi-factor confirmatory factor analysis to the elementary cognitive tasks to separate basal speed and binding requirements of the employed tasks to quantify their specific contributions to working memory capacity, as measured by Recall−1-Back tasks. A latent factor capturing individual differences in binding was incrementally predictive of working memory capacity, over and above a general factor capturing speed. These results indicate that the relation between reaction time tasks and working memory capacity hinges on the complexity of the reaction time tasks. We conclude that binding requirements and, therefore, demands on working memory capacity offer a satisfactory account of task complexity that accounts for a large portion of individual differences in ability.


2019 ◽  
Vol 6 (12a) ◽  
pp. 64 ◽  
Author(s):  
Veli Volkan Gürses ◽  
Okan Kamiş

The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between 60m sprint results and reaction times in athletes who took part in the World Indoor Athletics Championships. The reaction times and 60m sprint results were compiled for 483 sprinters (253 male, 230 female) who performed 60m sprint event. Corresponding data were obtained from archives of the official website of the International Association of Athletics Federation (IAAF). The relationship between reaction time and 60m sprint results were calculated using Pearson correlation coefficient. Additionally, the Independent Samples T-Test was used to compare athletes’ reaction times and 60m sprint results. Positive moderate correlation was found between mean values of all 60m sprint results and reaction times, which were analyzed together in all categories (r=.436, p<0.01). Moreover, significant differences were also found between male and female finalists based on the 60m sprint times and reaction times respectively (t=-27.98, p<0.01; t=-3.26, p<0.01). As a result, it can be concluded that reaction time has great importance on 60 m performance. The best reaction time is related to the higher performance of 60m sprint in both male and female athletes. Moreover, this is also similar for round 1, semifinal and final categories. Coaches and athletes may consider improving reaction time to achieve better 60m performance.


PEDIATRICS ◽  
1993 ◽  
Vol 91 (1) ◽  
pp. 101-104
Author(s):  
Wendy G. Mitchell ◽  
Yi Zhou ◽  
John M. Chavez ◽  
Bianca L. Guzman

Simple, choice, and complex reaction times, attention (variability of responses and omission errors), and impulsivity (commission and wrong-hand errors on choice and complex reaction time) were repeatedly measured in 111 epileptic children, aged 5 to 13 years, tested a total of 232 times. Antiepileptic drugs (AEDs) were started, stopped, and adjusted throughout the study period, for a variety of clinical indications, and AED serum levels were monitored. The relationship of performance to AED serum level was examined. Overall the nonspecific effect of AEDs was minimal: higher total serum levels of AEDs correlated with more impulsive errors on complex reaction time testing only. In contrast, in 54 children receiving carbamazepine monotherapy, we found a dose-related beneficial effect upon reaction time, with higher serum levels associated with faster responses and fewer omission errors, particularly on complex reaction time. Phenobarbital caused minimal dose-related effects: only variability and impulsive errors increased with increasing serum levels, and only on one segment of the test (73 subjects).


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