Reflective-impulsive style and conceptual tempo in a gross motor task

The reflective-impulsive construct refers to responses made slowly or quick ly in a situation with high uncertainty. Children who are labeled "reflecti ve" take a longer time to respond and make few errors, whereas "impulsive" children are fast and inaccurate. Although the validity of the test bind th e definition of reflective-impulsive style ale wall accepted, whether such respond fast or slow to all tasks is questioned. Some children do not fit t he dichotomy. Two other groups arise, the East-accurate and the slow-inaccu rate. The response styles of 86 boys, ages 5, 7, and 9 years performing a g ross motor task, i.e., hitting a ball with a racquet, were studied. Analysi s indicated that the slowest children on the Matching Familiar Figures Test can be faster than the fastest ones and remain more accurate. As the defin ition of the reflective-impulsive style is based on time, the reflective on es might better be viewed as children who can adapt the response time to th e context and thus be more efficient at problem-solving.