Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Identification, Testing & Assessment Processing Speed as a measure of intelligence

I imagine high processing speed also helps in building a conceptual meta structure and forming associative networks in long term memory. If you can see the forest for the trees quickly when a lot of new information is coming at you, you can categorize it appropriately (perhaps along multiple dimensions) and trigger spreading activation (that is, you can prime associative linkages between closely related concepts). With a wider associative network and more neural connections, we would expect the learning to be reinforced more frequently in long term memory for individuals with higher processing speed, potentially setting off a virtuous cycle of processing speed and encoding over time.

Add me to the list of derivers, too. I don't always trust my memory, but I trust my ability.

I am finding this discussion fascinating, because I have 2 children with high reasoning scores, but very different index profiles.

FWIW, both are excellent readers. DD is a FAST reader, though. DS could possibly get there when he is her age.

DS often DOES learn by memorizing - and his memory is pretty amazing. Not photographic, but he recalls details DD and I would easily forget. Poor DD seems to have inherited my penchant for devouring concepts, with a poor memory for numerals (yep - the phone numbers; I don't even TRY to remember them and always write them down). Add some letters to the combo and DD and I instantly have a better memory.

DS learns extremely well, but I often call him my "deep thinker." Unlike DD, who always has a quick answer for everything (euphemism intended), DS speaks less often, but many of his observations are profound. I believe he is a slower (although not slow) processor, but with a better memory - I do see this in real life. The WISC measured him this way, too.

In terms of paraphrasing, I was a thespian in high school and I am embarrassed to admit that I often ad libbed, without intending to...which can work to a point...until you get a role in a Shakespearean production and realize that you probably shouldn't be paraphrasing The Bard.

Quantum, I am going to answer this (the first time through at least lol!) without reading the replies already posted, so that what you'll get is my initial response to your OP. My initial reaction to what you are pondering is that there is a wide variation in what people consider to be both "processing speed" and "intelligence" and even "achievement" so this is going to be one of those questions where the answer depends on how the person answering defines the question.

I personally don't believe that processing speed is related to actual intellectual ability or the development of it. I do believe that processing speed is tied in with how a person approaches problem-solving.


Not necessarily. I have a daughter with an amazingly fast processing speed and high working memory, yet she is not an efficient reader. She's what you'd probably consider an extreme case or an exception, but for her, I have seen the fast processing speed in action, but at the same time, in the same person, I have also seen a huge impact of not being able to read up to par (or ahead of the game) in vocabulary development. She's just one person and no two people are going to be alike, but in her case, high processing speed does not equate to large vocabulary acquisition, and difficulties with reading correlate to not acquiring vocabulary at pace with intellect and peers.


This is counter to what I've seen with my own small subset of children, if your reference to "standard measures" refers to achievement testing. My EG ds has what would be considered a relatively "low" processing speed, yet he consistently scores at the top on achievement tests. My dd with the sky-high processing speed doesn't. She can finish her work and a test quickly, but the super-fast processing speed doesn't guarantee that she's absorbed and collated knowledge in the same way her brother has.



Yes, the difference in *learned* knowledge (facts) might be tremendously different, but would this directly equate to a difference in how your two children analyze the facts they learn, make inferences, and use that information in creative ways? And I would also point out that reading 5 books in one day vs reading one book in one day doesn't mean that the person who read 5 books on that one day has made such a leap in knowledge that they are reading at a higher level the next day which will equate to a level that the slower-reading person won't get to until the end of the fifth day.


To be honest, the place I've seen it make a *significant* difference is in the school system in the US - fast processing speed is an advantage in some situations at school. I can't say that I've seen it have any tremendous advantage in the working world I've been a part of (I'm a scientist). So no, I don't think it's a significant difference, just a difference.

When I have some time, I'll be back to read what other people posted… it's an interesting thought to ponder!

polarbear

Now I'm going to throw another angle on processing speed into the mix: what we think of as visual-motor processing speed of the WISC/WAIS/WPPSI coding/symbol search variety is probably more of a measure of efficiency with rote skills (though other kinds of processing speed strength are likely to bleed over). There are some other cognitive skills which we might consider processing speed as well, but which are somewhat distinct from the PSI-type, and include varying levels of reasoning.

For example, on the WJ, there is a subtest called decision speed. Visually and motorically, it's very similar to symbol search and its WJ analog, visual matching, but instead of simple matching of visual forms, one has to identify conceptual matches (albeit simple ones) quickly.

Retrieval fluency can also be considered a type of processing speed: timed object, letter, number, or word naming tasks, with or without visual cue.

This conversation has been fascinating. I've nearly started a similar thread myself recently. I did a lot of thinking about processing speed and working memory after reading a book recommended here called something like "Bright Kids Who Can't Keep Up". Also after reading my kids recent SB5 reports and giving a lot of inexpert thought to the differences between the SB5 and WISC.

Is processing speed actually processing speed or is it at least partially visual working memory? Is working memory actually auditory/verbal processing speed? Are these constructs as different as they tend to be described? Are they facets of the same thing?

Two of my kids qualified to gifted composite scores on the SB5 due to lower working memory scores, I was fascinated that as well as removing their two lowest scores the GCS also removed their single highest or equal highest score - Non Verbal Visual Spatial Processing is a major strength of my kids, working memory is not, though the SB5 at least tests NV WMI, which is stronger in all three of my kids than verbal...

I can very much relate to the fast/slow child syndrome described, and also both terrible and amazing aspects to their memories... Such a complex thing.

AEH - my DD with Aspergers did a computerized test once that included making decisions about what emotion was indicated by a photo of a person's face. She was fast all the emotions, and quite accurate at about half of them and quite mixed up with the other half, she was slower at deciding the ones she wasn't as good at, but still fast... I seem to recall she was quite good and quite fast at identifying angry :-).

If and when I help DD study for a science test, I find that she can recite much of the chapter they're in word for word. Admittedly, the book is easy, but I know she hasn't consciously tried to do this. It's a bit spooky. I've told her she could do beautifully in something like medicine because her memory for material that she reads (especially of interest--she loves science) is out of this world. When she was in a lengthy play at age 7, she memorized the other actors' lines unintentionally.

DD had a 60 point gap between her PRI and PSI scores on the WISC (PSI being lower), yet she is a fast and fluent reader. I worked with kids struggling with reading, and I could see some of them had processing issues, as they read very slowly but accurately. One boy read the same slow speed no matter what reading level I gave him. And he never seemed to speed up no matter how many times we read the same paragraph over and over again. I'm not sure how he would have done on other processing tasks (like coding on the WISC) but I think processing speed can vary wildly depending on the specific type of task.

That is another thing DD does! She was in two musicals last year. Poor thing always gets cast as a narrator because they know she can memorize long stretches of dialogue. She was the kid (and the youngest, to boot), who was helping out the other kids by whispering their lines to them. She will take the script and read it every night for enjoyment, she usually has the entire musical/play memorized within two weeks just by reading it for fun.