Abstract
It was seen that sensation and perception become altered in later life and it will be seen in subsequent chapters that cognitive abilities are also affected. There is a close relationship between these functions and speed of behavior. For example, if there is difficulty detecting objects, or in making visual discriminations, or in solving problems, response times in carrying out these tasks increase. This suggests that speed of performance may be used as a measure to examine a variety of different abilities. Few behavior scientists would argue with this, except perhaps to question whether speed of performance is the best measure that can be used, especially in investigating differences among age-groups. If perceptual or cognitive abilities are under test, other measures may be preferable. Additionally, slowness can result from age changes in muscles and peripheral neural mechanisms. The question of best measure comes up often, for instance in the context of mental testing where the choice is between tests of “power” (accuracy, knowledge) or tests of “speed.” Most investigators opt for power tests or for a combination of the two.
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Botwinick, J. (1984). Slowness of Behavior. In: Aging and Behavior. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-38517-3_13
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-38517-3_13
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