Processing Speed

One area of information processing that is often measured in a learning disability evaluation is processing speed. Processing speed, just as it sounds, refers to how quickly with process information. That is, how quickly we perceive (see, hear, notice) something and are able to respond to it. Some examples of processing speed at work in college:

Listening to a lecture and trying to understand and make sense of it as quickly as the instructor is talking
Answering all of the questions on exam within the time limit

Processing Speed Deficits

Processing speed deficits, or slower processing speed, is common in people with LDs. Although, not all people with LDs have difficulties in this area and some process information very rapidly.

At Cabrillo College, when we do an LD evaluation, we are often interested in looking at a few different aspects of processing speed. We often explore how quickly a student can scan and compare visual details accurately as well as how efficently they can write visual details accurately. These are two very specific areas of processing speed and do not come close to capturing all of the areas of this important ability.

In a college setting, we look at the ability to accurately scan for visual details and accurately notice and write down visual details because these skills are highly important for success in college. When reading, we are basically looking at a page full of squiggly lines and trying to efficiently understand that those squiggles represent letters and words and are expressing ideas. The same is true for numbers and symbols in math. And, if we make errors, these can cause us to spell words incorrectly, read the wrong word or the wrong number, or write down the wrong letter, number or symbol.

Speed is important for several reasons. There is limited time to read things on the board or a slide during lecture, to complete an exam, and to complete readings and homework. Also, our brains can only focus attention on a small amount of information in our heads at one time (working memory) and to understand the meaning of a sentence, for example, we need to be able to quickly pull in all of the words of that sentence so we can hold them all as a group and allow our brain to make sense of what they mean. Processing speed is also important to interacting with your instructor and with lab partners during class. However, by far the area of processing speed that impacts students the most is the amount of time they need to show what they have learned on a test.

Watch this 4:20 minute video on processing speed Links to an external site..