The relation between visual processing speed (critical flicker fusion thresholds [CFF] and psychomotor reaction time) and higher-level cognitive function was assessed using a cross-sectional sample (n = 51) of 7 to 13-year-old preadolescent children. Data on visual processing speed (CFF and psychomotor reaction time) and cognitive function (Woodcock-Johnson III Tests of Cognitive Abilities) were collected. Woodcock-Johnson III composite standard scores (brief intellectual ability [BIA], cognitive efficiency, processing speed, and executive processes) were calculated to control for age in the cognitive variables. CFF was related to cognitive efficiency, r(46) = 0.26, p = 0.036, and executive processes, r(44) = 0.25, p = 0.05, and showed a trend toward relating to processing speed, r(46) = 0.19, p = 0.09. Both psychomotor reaction time measures (fixed and variable) were related to executive processes and global intelligence (BIA) such that higher cognitive scores were associated with shorter reaction times, rs ranged from -0.25 to -0.29, ps < 0.05. In addition, fixed reaction time was related to cognitive efficiency, r(47) = -0.26, p < 0.05. The small nature of many of these relations suggests that visual processing speed is only one of many possible influences on the higher cognitive function of children.
Keywords: Cognition; critical flicker fusion (CFF); preadolescent children; processing speed; temporal vision.