The relationship of choice reaction time variability and intelligence: A meta-analysis

Frequently the relationship of the variability of reaction times (RTSD) on elementary cognitive tasks and psychometric general intelligence (g) has been investigated. A typical finding is that stable reaction times (low RTSDs) on very basic choice reaction tasks are associated with high g. This meta-analysis quantifies the phenomenon by integrating 24 studies of 27 independent samples with a total of 3968 subjects using comparable, Hick-derived paradigms (Hick 0, 1, 2, 3 bit; odd-man-out). Special attention was given to the disattenuation of correlations for reliability artefacts. Random effect meta-analysis yielded small to moderate relationships between intelligence and reaction time variability, the pooled Pearson correlation ranging between − .18 (0 bit) and − .28 (2 bit). The relationship did not, however, prove consistently larger than the one between intelligence and reaction time, in contrast to earlier findings.