A TEST OF LARSON AND ALDERTON (1990) WORST PERFORMANCE RULE OF REACTION-TIME VARIABILITY

The validity of Larson and Alderton's (1990; Intelligence, 14, 309-325) 'Worst Performance' rule of reaction time (RT) variability, which states that the worst RT trials correlate more highly with intelligence than the fastest RT trials, was tested by examining the potentially confounding effect of range restriction across the RT bands of elementary cognitive tasks (ECTs) of various degrees of information processing complexity. Results of this study indicate that the intersubject variability within RT bands is not systematically related to the pattern of correlations of RT with intelligence. In addition, results of an analysis of the movement time (MT) bands provide evidence of the divergent validity of the worst performance rule. These data also support Jensen's (1985; Methodological and statistical advances in the study of individual differences. New York: Plenum. 1987; Speed of information processing and intelligence. Norwood, NJ: Ablex) argument for the separate measurement of RT and MT in all speed of information processing research. In sum, results of this study substantiate the Worst Performance rule for individual differences in RT variability and intelligence.