The Relationship between General Processing Speed and Speed of Processing Information about Quantity in Tests with Different Formats

Introduction. Tasks containing quantitative information are included in the educational programs of many school subjects, and the time of their completion becomes one of the criteria for the academic competitiveness of schoolchildren. At the same time, the ratio of the general processing speed and the speed of processing information about quantity can vary depending on the format of tests' stimuli. Goals & objectives. The aim of this study was analyzing the relationship between general processing speed and speed of processing information about quantity of different formats. The focus is on quantitative information expressed in non-symbolic (only objects), symbolic (only numbers) and mixed (objects and numbers) formats. The relationship between general processing speed and speed of processing non-symbolic quantitative information was analyzed while controlling the accuracy, in groups of schoolchildren with high and low accuracy. Materials and methods. The study involved 589 high schoolchildren ages 14.8 to 18.0 (M = 16.6; SD = 0.9), of whom 54.9% were female. General processing speed was measured using the computerized test "Choice Reaction Time"; and test's speed of processing quantitative information by the tests "Number Sense", "Number Line" and "Dot Number" (Tikhomirova, Malykh, 2023). Statistical analysis was performed using the correlation analysis, including in groups identified based on the number of correct answers when representing non- symbolic quantity. Results. It was shown that general processing speed and speed of processing of the quantity expressed by numbers (symbolic format) or numbers and objects (mixed format) are directly proportionally moderately interrelated. On the contrary, when completing tests with quantitative information containing only objects (non-symbolic format), general processing speed and test's time of completing were not interrelated. At the same time, this interrelation becomes noticeable only in the group of schoolchildren with very high accuracy in tasks with non-symbolic quantity. Conclusions. The speed of cognitive processes associated with the processing of quantitative information are characterized by specificity, which is determined by the format of the quantity - non-symbolic, symbolic or mixed.