DEVELOPMENTAL CHANGE IN SPEED OF PROCESSING

与年龄相关的快速任务绩效差异(例如，简单任务 反应时间、类比推理)无处不在且庞大。这个 拟议的研究旨在区分这两个原则 对这些年龄差异的解释：(1)差异是由于 中心机制，但在某种意义上是附生的， 速度很容易从其他心理机制中获得(例如，由于 幼儿使用效率较低的任务解决策略)；以及 (2)年龄差异是核心，反映了一些 儿童认知系统的基本参数(例如，年龄 加工资源的差异)。 每个被提议的实验都涉及三个任务：心理旋转， 视觉搜索和记忆搜索。在心理轮换中，受试者决定是否 以不同方向显示的字母对相同或 镜像。在视觉搜索任务中，受试者首先被显示为 目标字母。然后向他们显示一个字母数组(例如，A R W C F) 并被要求尽快确定目标字母是否为 在这一系列中。记忆搜索任务本质上是视觉搜索 相反的任务：向受试者展示一系列字母，然后确定 如果随后提交的信函是该集合的成员。主题 年龄从8岁到21岁不等。 实验1的目的是确定是否存在年龄差异 受试者的心理旋转、视觉搜索和记忆搜索的速度 有广泛的实践(以至于不再进行额外的实践 提高性能)。实验2和实验3的目的是确定如何 速度和精度在性能上权衡，因此处理速度 不同的年龄段可以基于同等的准确度水平。 最后，加工速度的年龄差异是否反映了发育 在一个中心机构的变化中，增长函数的形状 不同任务的处理速度应该相同。因此，其目的是 实验4是确定不同的加工参数是否有 类似的增长功能。

Age-related differences in performance on speeded tasks (e.g., simple reaction time, analogical reasoning) are ubiquitous and large. The proposed research is designed to distinguish between the two principal explanations for these age differences: (1) the differences are due to central mechanisms but are epiphenomenal in the sense that differences in speed are readily derived from other psychological mechanisms (e.g., due to younger children's use of less efficient strategies for task solution); and (2) the age differences are central and reflect the operation of some fundamental parameter of the child's cognitive system (e.g., age differences in processing resources). Each of the proposed experiments involves three tasks: mental rotation, visual search, and memory search. In mental rotation, subjects decide if pairs of letters presented in different orientations are identical or mirror images. In the visual search task, subjects are first shown a target letter. Then they are shown an array of letters (e.g., A R W C F) and are asked to determine, as rapidly as possible, if the target letter is in the series. The memory search task is essentially the visual search task in reverse: Subjects are shown the series of letters, then determine if a letter presented subsequently was member of the set. The subjects will range from 8 to 21 years of age. The aim of Experiment 1 is to determine if there are age differences in rates of mental rotation, visual search, and memory search after subjects have extensive practice (to the point that additional practice no longer improves performance). The aim of Experiments 2 and 3 is to determine how speed and accuracy tradeoff in performance, so that processing speeds for different age groups can be based on equivalent levels of accuracy. Finally, if age differences in speed of processing reflect developmental change in a central mechanism, the shape of the growth function for processing speed should be the same across tasks. Thus, the aim of Experiment 4 is to determine if different processing parameters have similar growth functions.