# DEVELOPMENTAL CHANGE IN SPEED OF PROCESSING

> **NIH NIH R01** · PURDUE UNIVERSITY · 1993 · $82,336

## Abstract

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.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 2197908
- **Project number:** 5R01HD019947-09
- **Recipient organization:** PURDUE UNIVERSITY
- **SAM.gov UEI:** YRXVL4JYCEF5
- **Principal Investigator:** Robert V. Kail
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 1993
- **Award amount:** $82,336
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 1985-05-01 → 1995-04-30

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/2197908

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 2197908, DEVELOPMENTAL CHANGE IN SPEED OF PROCESSING (5R01HD019947-09). Retrieved via MORVS 2026-10-25 from https://api.morvs.ai/grant/nih/2197908. Licensed CC0.

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