Development of intra-subject variability of processing speed

• Applicants: Professor Dr. André Beauducel; Professor Dr. Christoph Klein; Professor Dr. Manuel Voelkle
• Subject Area: Developmental and Educational Psychology
• Term: from 2012 to 2019
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 232351552

Although the increase in intra-subject variability has been identified in ageing research as a reliable predictor of cognitive decline, hardly anything is known about the relevance of decreases in intra-subject variability as predictor of cognitive development during childhood and adolescence. Starting with the established relevance of working memory capacity and processing speed for intellectual development, the proposed research aims to compare different structural equation models that assign different roles to the three constructs working memory capacity, processing speed and intra-subject variability of processing speed with regard to the prediction of the development of general intelligence, thereby distinguishing different facets of intra-subject variability. While a relatively broad age range (6-18 years) will be investigated cross-sectionally, proper cause-effect relationships will be investigated longitudinally over two years in a narrower, early age range (6-7 years).Data analysis will employ MIMIC models for the cross-sectional data, and Dual change score models as well as continuous time models for the longitudinal data. Overall, we expect this project to yield new basic knowledge about central factors of cognitive development and to enlighten the developmental dynamics of important constructs of Differential Psychology. The results of this project will therefore contribute to the further development of developmental and differential theories, demonstrate the applicability of innovative methods of developmental psychology, and provide an important basis for the further investigation of cognitive anomalies in psychiatric disorders of childhood and adolescence.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants