The proposed research continues work studying 1) whether there are substantial speed-intelligence relationships in adults, 2) whether the magnitude of these relationships differs in different age groups, and 3) whether age differences in information processing speed, as measured by a set of reaction time (RT) tasks, covary with psychometric test performance. The new research will collect retest data on participants from our current study and establish a new cross-sectional sample optimally designed for future longitudinal testing. The data collected from our current set of participants will provide new data on short- term change in psychometric ability factors not previously studied in longitudinal research in adults -- spatial visualization and flexibility of closure. The data on short-term changes in verbal and spatial information processing speed will be the first longitudinal data collected on these variables during the critical transition period between middle and old age. Change in these variables will be related to change in multiple individual characteristics, including self-reported physical health and psychological well being. The new psychometric battery will include additional measures of the second-order factors of visualization and fluid intelligence, as well as measures of crystallized intelligence that seem from previous research to have more substantial """"""""power"""""""" components. The new cross-sectional study will include 1) testing of nine hundred adults, ages 30 - 74, on the psychometric abilities tests, and 2) a testing of three hundred of the adults and one hundred- fifty undergraduate students on the previously developed battery of RT tasks measuring a) simple and choice RT, b) semantic processing speed, and c) spatial rotation speed. The study will also include two new tasks: a form board RT task and a task measuring visual working memory for form board stimuli. These tasks will enable assessment of speed and accuracy of constituent processes measured in psychometric tests of spatial visualization. This study will greatly extend our knowledge of information processing correlates of spatial ability and how these relationships change with aging during adulthood.
| Hertzog, C; Vernon, M C; Rypma, B (1993) Age differences in mental rotation task performance: the influence of speed/accuracy tradeoffs. J Gerontol 48:P150-6 |
| Grover, D R; Hertzog, C (1991) Relationships between intellectual control beliefs and psychometric intelligence in adulthood. J Gerontol 46:P109-15 |
