Abstract
Brighter people process information faster than the less bright on a variety of cognitive tasks, but interpretation of this observation is ambiguous. Results suggest that higher intelligence may be associated with greater resolution capacity, which in turn may increase speed of performance. No aptitude-related differences in signal detection thresholds were observed, suggesting that aptitude-related effects of novelty per se are an unlikely explanation for the superior frequency discrimination performance of brighter college students. Detection tasks, in contrast to recognition tasks, do not tap the 'higher' cognitive functions associated with psychometric intelligence. (Abstract amended)