DEVELOPMENTAL CHANGE IN SPEED OF PROCESSING

与年龄相关的儿童、青少年、 而成年人执行的心理过程是无处不在的，而且规模很大。这些年龄 差异已链接到一个全球机制(即，不是 特定于特定任务或域)，该值随 年龄。本项目的长期目标是 这一机制并理解其对认知发展的影响。这个 本研究的具体目的是： (1)拟议的工作将审查连接主义理论，在该理论中 性能涉及多个处理步骤。一些信息是 假设在网络中的每一步都丢失，并且降级的信号 这一结果的处理速度更慢。根据这个模型，孩子们 处理信息的速度变慢了，因为 步骤，这意味着在等待的每一步都会消耗更多时间 获得足够的信息来识别该信号。这一理论将 在使用反馈来操纵的实验中被检验 给出了精确度和退化刺激。 (2)关于加工速度发展变化的研究主要集中在 7到22岁的人，这意味着一个全球机制 必须将处理速度的发展变化限制在 这个年龄段。拟议的研究中包括一些方法，这些方法将 允许对年龄较小的儿童进行测试，从而提供了更强的测试 关于全球机制的主张。这些方法包括检查 儿童与成人平均反应时的关系 不同的实验条件。 (3)幼儿往往一开始就不能执行某些 认知过程，但当信息呈现得更多时可以做到 慢慢地。在这些情况下，已经有足够的时间来执行进程 在临时基础上确定的。拟议工作的目的之一是使用 用于预测足够的呈现速率的处理速度的研究 儿童执行特定的认知过程。该方法包括： 首先，确定不同时刻的呈现时间-性能函数 年龄，第二，检查演示文稿的发展变化 有足够的时间让个人完成各种任务。

Age-related differences in the speed with which children, adolescents, and adults execute mental processes are ubiquitous and large. These age differences have been linked to a global mechanism (i.e., one that is not specific to particular tasks or domains) that changes exponentially with age. The long-term objective of the present project is to characterize this mechanism and understand its Impact on cognitive development. The specific aims of the present research are these: (1) The proposed work will examine a connectionist theory in which performance involves multiple processing steps. Some information is presumed to be lost at each step in the network, and the degraded signal that results is processed more slowly. According to the model, children process information more slowly because more information is lost per step, which means more time is consumed at each step waiting for sufficient information to accrue to identify the signal. The theory will be examined in experiments in which feedback is used to manipulate accuracy and degraded stimuli are presented. (2) Most work on developmental change in processing speed has focused on 7- to 22-year-olds, which means that claims that a global mechanism underlies developmental change in processing speed must be restricted to this age range. Included in the proposed research are methods that would allow younger children to be tested, thereby providing a stronger test of claims concerning the global mechanism. These methods involve examining the relation between children's and adults' mean response times across different experimental conditions. (3) Young children often are initially incapable of executing some cognitive process but can do so when information is presented more slowly. In these cases, sufficient time to execute processes has been determined on an ad hoc basis. An aim of the proposed work is to use research on processing speed to predict sufficient presentation rates for children to execute particular cognitive processes. The method involves, first, determining presentation time-performance functions at different ages, and, second, examining developmental change in the presentation time that is sufficient for individuals to perform various tasks.