Differential effects of intelligence, perceptual speed and age on growth in attentional speed and accuracy

The study investigates the effects of intelligence, perceptual speed and age on intraindividual growth in attentional speed and attentional accuracy over the course of a 6-minute testing session. A sample of 193 subjects completed the Advanced Progressive Matrices and the Vienna Matrices Test representing intelligence, the tests Alertness and GoNogo representing simple perceptual processing, and the Frankfurt Adaptive Concentration-Performance Test, a measure of executive attention. Growth curve modeling demonstrated an increase of attentional speed and accuracy performance following linear and logarithmic trajectories, respectively. For attentional speed, intelligence significantly predicted baseline performance, but not performance growth, while for perceptual speed the reverse pattern of results held. For attentional accuracy, intelligence did not have an effect, neither on baseline performance nor on performance growth, whereas perceptual speed influenced both baseline performance and performance growth. Thus, intelligence was not associated with the ability to learn to perform the attention task quickly and accurately. Age differences were mainly related to baseline performance. Results indicate that the concurrent performance aspects, speed and accuracy, are distinct in the shape of growth and in the prediction of growth curve parameters by intelligence, perceptual speed, and age.