On the Limits of Kagan's Impulsive-Reflective Distinction.

The Matching Family Figures Test (MFF) is examined in order to show that a wide variety of rational speed-accuracy trade-offs ranging from impulsive to reflective are quite plausible. Ten children (mean age, eight years) took part in the experiment. Five had previously been classified on the basis of the MFF as impulsive, five as reflective. On the recognition memory task, the two groups did not differ in accuracy but did differ reliably in response bias. The groups also differed in mean latency. Thus, it was found that the MFF can predict differences in latency on other tasks, but such differences may not be associated with perceptual sensitivity so much as with response bias. The results are seen as indicative of lack of reason for the usual preference for the reflective strategy. (SJL)