Abstract
Information-processing approaches to cognitive function suggest a new way of viewing individual differences in intellectual capabilites. Response latencies of 40 young adults were measured in two batteries of visual comparison tasks, and a number of scores developed from these latencies were considered from a psychometric point of view. Data from three sessions per S did not permit reliable estimation of rational parameters but did support efforts to dissect the components of latency to a limited extent. Over-all latency was separated into latency in optimal trials and dispersion upward from this optimal value. The dispersion component was found to be common to a variety of tasks. Three-fourths of the variance in optimal latencies was common to all tasks. A portion of the remaining variance could be assigned, with only moderate reliability, to inter-individual variation in dealing with form and color information, to differences related to the task format (matching versus oddity), and to differences in gains with practice. Residual variance probably reflects task-specific factors as well as the effects of the immediate context within which a task is performed.
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