Finder slow to show items in column, icon views (OK in list, cover flow)

I'm seeing new perplexing slow behavior on our three-month old iMac running 10.5.5: when in column view and selecting (or in icon view and double-clicking) a folder, there is an initial five-second lag before items will appear in the next column or window; meanwhile, the bottom of the window will only show the space available until items appear and only then will it list the number of items along with space available. It's enough to make you wonder if there actually is anything in the folder while you wait. I say "initial" lag because on subsequent selection, the listing is instantaneous. However, if you log out and in again, it's back to the delay while waiting for initial listings. None of this behavior happens in list or cover flow views, but column view is my routine, so I'd like to make it snappier.
I've gone through some basic troubleshooting steps (repairing permissions, checking Console and Activity Monitor) to no avail. I haven't run into this behavior on my 2-yr. old MBP, so I'm not sure what to look for. Any thoughts?

Get a utility such as TinkerTool System, Onyx, etc. that has a feature to remove all .DS_Store files. If they get corrupted this could cause the problem you describe. I would also consider disabling the View preference to Show Icon Preview. Use the Show View Options in the Finder's View menu. With Leopard you may need to do this for each new Finder window you open (press COMMAND-J to open the preference dialog for the active window.) Do the same for the Desktop. Show Icon Preview can slow down the content display in the Finder initially. Once the information is cached it displays much quicker. Hence the observation that you described.
It also may not hurt to delete the /Home/Library/Preferences/com.apple.finder.plist file in case there's problem with it. Then relaunch the Finder - open the task manager (COMMAND-OPTION-ESC,) select the Finder task and click on the Relaunch button.

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