Distraction as a determinant of processing speed

Processing speed is often described as a fundamental resource determining individual (e.g., I.Q.) and group (e.g., developmental) differences in cognition. However, most tests that measure speed present many items on a single page. Because many groups with slowed responding are also distractible, we...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inPsychonomic bulletin & review Vol. 13; no. 4; pp. 619 - 625
Main Authors LUSTIG, Cindy, HASHER, Lynn, TONEV, Simon T
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Austin, TX Psychonomic Society 01.08.2006
Springer Nature B.V
Subjects
Adult
Age Factors
Aged
Attention
Biological and medical sciences
Cognition & reasoning
Cognition. Intelligence
Comparative studies
Experimental psychology
Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology
Human performance
Humans
Intelligence
Miscellaneous
Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry
Psychology. Psychophysiology
Reaction Time
Young adults
Human
Attention
Information processing
Distraction
Cognition
Experimental study
Velocity
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Summary:Processing speed is often described as a fundamental resource determining individual (e.g., I.Q.) and group (e.g., developmental) differences in cognition. However, most tests that measure speed present many items on a single page. Because many groups with slowed responding are also distractible, we compared younger and older adults on high-distraction (i.e., standard) versus low-distraction versions of two classic speed tasks. Reducing distraction improved the performance of older adults but had little or no effect on younger adults, suggesting that the ability to limit attentional access to task-relevant information can affect performance on tests designed to measure processing speed.
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ISSN:1069-9384
1531-5320
DOI:10.3758/BF03193972