Figure 11.9: Reaction time for simple tasks decreases with age Children and adolescents were tested for their speed on six different tests, including a test of elementary reaction time (releasing a button in response to a signal) and a test of picture matching (judging whether two pictures are identical or not). Each person’s average time for the six tests was converted by dividing it by the average time achieved by young adults, and the results were then averaged for each age group. Note that a decline in reaction time implies an increase in speed.

(Based on data from Kail, 1993.)