Verbal Skills, Finger Tapping, and Cognitive Tempo Define a Second-Order Factor of Temporal Information Processing

Adolescents with academic and social problems are often characterized as impulsive, having poor verbal skills, and having poor motor coordination. Language and skilled movements have long been hypothesized to share a common neural basis. The purpose of this study was to test the hypothesis that verbal skills, fine motor tasks that require a continuous sequential response, and cognitive tempo (impulsiveness, time judgment) would interrelate to define a higher-order dimension of "temporal information processing." Subjects were 155 males of high school age. The results confirmed the basic hypothesis.