Differential Response Speed: Is it Really a Nuisance?

Abstract

It is commonly acknowledged that ability and speed are not separate constructs but interact with each other. Traditionally, the ability-speed interplay has been seen as a problem to be conquered and a number of psychometric methods have been developed to deal with the interplay between ability and speed and to obtain more pure ability measures. The focus article by Frank Goldhammer proposed an experimental control to eliminate response speed interference in the measurement of response accuracy. In this commentary, I argue that varying response speed within and across people can be regarded an integral element of intelligence measurement rather than a nuisance, in order to further investigate and discover new, dynamic cognitive functions within the context of execution time.