Speed of information processing in the hick paradigm and response latencies in a psychometric intelligence test

Abstract

The relationship between speed of information processing in the Hick paradigm and response latencies to items of Raven's Advanced Progressive Matrices was determined for 60 university students. For the Hick paradigm shortcomings of previous studies (order effects, visual attention effects, response bias effects, reaction time/movement time strategies) were avoided. Raven's Advanced Progressive Matrices were administered involving measurement of item response latencies. As predicted, Hick RTs were negatively correlated with intelligence. Correlating the average response latency to Raven's items with intelligence did not show a relationship, but a moderating effect of item difficulty could be observed: response latencies to relatively simple items were negatively correlated with intelligence, the opposite was true for difficult items. No relationships were observed between Hick RTs and item response latencies, therefore it was concluded that information processing speed in the Hick paradigm and response times in intelligence tests seem to reflect different processes.