Processing speed
Résumé
Processing speed is the rate at which fundamental cognitive operations can be carried out. Processing speed is involved in everyone's daily functioning and increases throughout childhood until young adulthood and declines slowly thereafter. This entry presents the state of the art concerning the research about this processing resource. After having addressed how processing speed can be accurately and independently measured, the emphasis will be on the relationships processing speed maintains with other higher order cognitive functions, such as fluid intelligence, and how this cognitive process is affected by normal aging.