RESPONSE TIME LABORATORY

 

What is involved when you respond to a sight or sound by moving your finger to press a keyboard button?  How many neurons do you think the impulse has to pass through?  List the events involved in as much detail as you can.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There is a wide variety of web-based reaction time testers.  Your job in this lab is to design an experiment about what might affect reaction time, perform it with several different reaction time testers, and evaluate them. Please let us know if any of the links are broken!

 

REACTION TIME TESTS:

 

React to a pitcher throwing a baseball

Exploratorium. Fastball Reaction time http://www.exploratorium.edu/baseball/reactiontime.html

 

React to the color change of a stoplight

1. Allen, J., 2002. The online reaction time test. http://www.getyourwebsitehere.com/jswb/rttest01.html

 

React to a change in background color

1. Chudler, E.H., 1995-2005. Colorful reaction time tester http://faculty.washington.edu/chudler/java/backtime.html

 

2. Wood, R., 1997-2004.Test your reaction time.http://www.topendsports.com/testing/reactiontest.htm

 

 

React to a change in screen text

Chudler, E.H., 1995-2005. Test your reaction time http://faculty.washington.edu/chudler/java/reacttime.html

 

React to sight vs. sound

1. Pfaff, R. Sound vs. Sight reflexes http://ww2.unime.it/dipart/i_fismed/wbt/mirror/ExplrSci/dswmedia/reflex.htm

 

2. Sciencenetlinks, Frog reaction time http://sciencenetlinks.com/interactives/zap.html 

 

3. The web site at ProQuest Information and Learning Company, 2005. Sight vs Sound Reflexes

http://www.explorelearning.com/index.cfm?method=cResource.dspResourcesForCourse&CourseID=323

will link to a program that allows you to measure reaction time.  You can use the program for 5 minutes without signing in, or you can follow the instructions your lab instructor will give you to sign in as a member of my class.

 

PLEASE NOTE if you are planning a research project involving reaction time – we only have class access to this site for 30 days.  To use it for more than 5 minutes after the next month, you will have to ask another instructor to sign on for the 30-day free trial. You might prefer to use a different reaction time test for any projects.

 

Step 1 – play around

 

Try out a bunch of reaction time tests and make notes on what they do. Do you get significantly different reaction time measurements when you take different tests? Why might that be?

 

Now you’re ready to use them --

 

Develop a hypothesis. What do you think controls and affects reaction time? 

 

Check the literature. A good hypothesis should be informed by the published results.  Look at Kosinski, R.J., A literature review on reaction time.http://biowww.clemson.edu/bpc/bp/Lab/110/reaction.htm

To see what’s known about your hypothesis (hint – if it’s not in the index, use the ‘find’ function and search the document for your chosen topic).

 

Refine the hypothesis.  Will you change your hypothesis based on the literature?

 

Design the experiment. How will you perform the experiment? (what stimulus, how many trials, how many subjects) Please design an experiment that you can perform in about 10-15 minutes.  Before you do the experiment, create a data table to enter your data in and have it approved by your lab instructor.

 

  • Analyze the results. Enter your results into an Excel spreadsheet and graph them.  

 

Reaction time lab report

 

Introduction: Briefly discuss what the literature review says. Remember to cite it properly! Explain what your hypothesis is and how it relates to the literature. Is it building on those results or looking at something different, or is it an attempt to replicate those results?

 

Data table and graph:

 

Use this checklist for your data table:

 

  • Columns and rows labeled with units and with enough detail that the reader can understand results just from the table
  • Table has a title that explains just what you tested and how
  • The reaction time program you used is properly cited

 

Use this checklist for your graph:

 

  • Axes labeled with units
  • Graph has a title that explains just what you tested and how
  • Graph axes both begin at zero
  • If the graph shows individual people’s data, it should be a bar graph
  • The reaction time program you used is properly cited

 

Discussion: Did the results support or refute the hypothesis? If they refuted it, what alternative hypothesis can you suggest?

 

If you were going to continue studying this topic, what would you look at in your next experiment? Why?