Reaction Time

with Dr. Manal Fakhoury, Fakhoury 35

Leadership International and Dr. Ursula
Schwuttke, IHMC

2015-2016

Each CLASS will need: Optional:

• White board for group discussion • Candy bars
• A means for showing videos in the • Deck of cards (one per team)
classroom • Whistle (one per class)
• Squishy balls (one per team)
Each TEAM will need:
• Yardsticks or rulers (one per team of two
students)
• Timers (students can use their cell
phones)
• Data Collection Sheet (one per student -
available in down-loads)
• Clip board (one per team, if available, for
the data collection sheets)
• Pencils
I. IMPORTANCE OF TEAM WORK (2-3 minutes)

Experiment Rules: (1-2 minutes)

• Be Polite
• Work Together
• Participate
• Raise hand to ask question
• Take Notes
• Keep work area clean
• Have fun

II. INTRODUCTORY GAME

Tag your Partner’s Knee (video available from downloads). Show the video, and have the class pair
up and do this exercise for some initial insights into reaction time. Do this for fun, no data collection
is required.

III. REACTION TIME EXPERIMENT

1. Definition: What is reaction time?

The time needed to respond to a stimulus or situation

The speed at which we are able to process information and make decisions.

When you have advance notice that you are going to need to respond, your reaction time is faster. In
other words, when you are alert, you have a faster reaction time.

Why is this important?

It often determines our success, for example in:
• Sports
• Test taking
• Safety (for example, driving)

Reaction time has 2 main components:

• Stimulus Time
• Response Time

Stimulus time: Stimulus time is the time it takes your sensory system to send a message to your
brain.
Response Time: Response time is the time it takes your brain to process the stimulus and send a
message to your muscles and for your muscles to begin to react.

Distractions increase reaction time because you are not as focused, and are not paying much
attention.

We all have a measurable reaction time.

The average reaction time to visual stimulus is around 250 milliseconds, and most people seem to
be hard capped at around 190-200 ms with training. However, according to Nvidia, the company
that invented the graphics processing unit (aka graphics card) the average reaction time of a talented
gamer is 150 ms.

How is this important? Ask for examples.

2. Factors That Influence Reaction Time

Age
Practice
Fatigue
Exercise
Overall health
Heredity (genetics)
Sensory system - sight vs touch
Gender - males are generally faster
Limb used
Personality - outgoing vs shy
Body temperature - warmer is faster
Alertness level - excited vs lethargic

3. Distractions: Give examples, for example, relating to driving.

Sneezing
Bad Weather
Sudden changes on your windshield

What are some distractions that can be avoided?

Does everyone have the same reaction time?

4.Basic Reaction Time Experiment.

The Ruler Drop Test - How Fast Are You?

Show the video (Mr. O) from the downloads to provide visual instructions for the experiment to the
students.

This activity is designed to measure your response time to something that you see.
Get a ruler or a yardstick. Yardsticks, if available, are better, especially for younger students who may
have slower reaction time. Hold the ruler near the end (highest number) and let it hang down. Have
another person put his or her hand, resting on the edge of a desk or table, aligned with the bottom
of the ruler, as shown in the video, and have them ready to grab the ruler as it drops. (They should
not be touching the ruler to start).

Tell the other person that you will drop the ruler sometime within the next 5 seconds and that
they are supposed to catch the ruler as fast as they can after it is dropped. Record the level (inches
or centimeters) at which they catch the ruler (you can convert the distance into reaction time with
the table provided in downloads). Test the same person 3 to 5 times and record the results on the
worksheet provided. (Vary the time of dropping the ruler within the 5 second “dropzone” so the
other person cannot guess when you will drop the ruler).

Use the table provided with the worksheet to convert the distance on the ruler to reaction time. For
example, if you caught the ruler at the 8 inch mark, then your reaction time is equal to 0.20 seconds
(200 ms). Remember that there are 1,000 milliseconds (ms) in 1 second.

Older students should be careful to hold their hand in exactly the same way for each trial, and the
same as the other students in the class - with the same amount of separation between the fingers
and the thumbs. For younger students, this level of accuracy is not as important.

Older students can interpolate the correct reaction time from the table, younger students can
choose the closest distance to what they recorded.)

GETTING STARTED

Step 1: What is your hypothesis?

(Examples - the subject will have a fast reaction time, or a faster than average, all students will have
similar reaction time, etc.)

Step 2: Conduct the experiment

1. Have your subject rest their hand on the table edge
2. Hold a ruler at the end with the highest number
3. Have the subject put their thumb on one side of the bottom of the ruler, and their fingers on
the other side. They should not grasp the ruler though. It must be able to freely fall between his
fingers.
4. Without warning the subject, let go of the ruler.
5. When the subject notices that the ruler is falling, they should try to grasp it by closing his thumb
and fingers around it. They should not move their hand.
6. Look at the ruler and see where the subject grasped it. Find the location in centimeters on the
ruler where the hand is grasping the ruler. This should tell you how far the ruler fell before the
subject reacted and grasped the ruler.
7. Record the location of the grasp on your sheet.
8. Repeat steps 1 through 7 two more times for this subject.
9. Repeat the whole procedure (steps 1 through 8) with additional subjects.

Step 3: Record and Organize Data

Use the provided data sheet, available from downloads

After each trial, the subject records their own data on the worksheet. After all trials for each group
member have been completed, the students will convert their measurements to their to reaction
time using the provided data conversion table.

Step 4: Draw Conclusions and Present Results

Now look at your results. What do they tell you about your hypothesis? This is your conclusion.
Generally, there are three possible conclusions:

My hypothesis [fill in hypothesis] was correct

My hypothesis was incorrect
I’m not sure if my hypothesis was correct or incorrect, further experiments are needed.

Each group presents their results to the class.

(OPTIONAL)
Compare boys vs. girls. On average, are the boys or girls faster?
Compare the scores after practice. Does reaction time improve with practice?
Calculate time with distraction and non-distraction. For this experiment, have the person holding
the ruler distract the subject by making funny noises, or making faces, or singing a song, snapping
their fingers, etc. before and/or while dropping the ruler.

Have each group present their results.

Other variations: There are many variations of the ruler drop test, including blindfold / tactile
(where you touch their shoulder and then drop the ruler while they are blindfolded), warning vs no-
warning, two rulers (one for each hand).
Another variation uses a candy bar instead of a ruler, which the subject gets to keep if they catch it.
(This tests whether motivation improves reaction time.)

ADDITIONAL REACTION TIME EXPERIMENTS

Whistle Experiment:
Ask for a boy and girl volunteer to come up to the front.
Stand behind them.
Blow the whistle and see who reacts faster by raising their hand. Do it several times.

Simple or Multiple Choice Reaction Time, Card Experiment:

Simple - There is only one response to a given stimulus, no decision making.
Multiple Choice - There is more than one stimulus and or there is more than one response. The
greater the number of possibilities, the more time it takes for someone to react.

The card experiment is done in several phases. Have the students specify a hypothesis before
beginning.
1. All cards in the deck are in a single face-down stack, measure the time it takes to flip them over,
one by one (simple).
2. All the cards are face down, measure the time it takes to flip them over and separate into the two
colors (choice).
3. All cards are face down, separate into suits (four stacks).
4. All cards are face down, separate into suits and face cards (five stacks).

Record the time that it takes each subject to complete each phase. You would expect to see the
biggest reaction time between #1 and #2, when you move from simple to multiple choice.

Improving Reaction Time

Athletes improve their reaction time with simple exercises (see video downloads). Have students try
the various ways to practice.
 DATA SHEET DOWNLOAD
Conversion of distance measured with ruler to Reaction Time

DISTANCE REACTION TIME

2 in 5 cm 0.10 sec (100 ms)

4 in 10 cm 0.14 sec (140 ms)
6 in 15 cm 0.17 sec (170 ms)
8 in 20 cm 0.20 sec (200 ms)
10 in 25.5 cm 0.23 sec (230 ms)
12 in 30.5 cm 0.25 sec (250 ms)
17 in 43 cm 0.30 sec (300 ms)
24 in 61 cm 0.35 sec (350 ms)
31 in 79 cm 0.40 sec (400 ms)
39 in 99 cm 0.45 sec (450 ms)
48 in 123 cm 0.50 sec (500 ms)
69in 175 cm 0.60 sec (600 ms)

(Conversions between inches and centimeters are approximate)

How Fast Are You?

Trial Distance on Ruler Approximate Reaction Time (sec)

 VIDEO DOWNLOADS
Tag your partners knee:
https://pedl.uoregon.edu/tag/knee-tag/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=asbgD6vsjfM&t=175s

Mr. O and the yardstick/ruler test: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MRosXcIyNG4

Improving your Reaction Time: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R42rz4DlYDA

Use squishy balls instead of tennis balls to do this indoors or in the classroom.

DO MORE/LEARN MORE
Compare your reaction time to visual stimulus to that of a university athlete, doing 3 simple tests
with computer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e0TAR4d_FdM

IMPROVING YOUR REACTION TIME:

Unlike reflexes, which aren’t processed by the brain, reaction time can be strengthened and
improved through practice and lifestyle changes. Cognitive exercises, meditation, and mindfulness
are all ways to boost reaction time in a safe and healthy way.

Improving reaction time with practice: Have your class practice with the squishy ball every day for
ten or fifteen minutes, for some number of days. Then repeat the yardstick/ ruler experiment, collect
data, calculate, and see whose reaction time improves. Before beginning the daily practice, have
students record their hypothesis.

Dollar experiment: This is another alternative to yardstick / ruler. It seems like it will be easy, but it
turns out that very few people can catch the dollar, because the dollar is shorter in length than what
is needed to accommodate the average person’s reaction time.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7PXxHsI29cQ

Reflex Test: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CbR1298JVjQ

For Older Students:

Reaction Time Intro - with (legal) drug use (For older students): https://www.youtube.com/
watch?v=Ez4-Dt9AQQg
More about improving Reaction Time
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EqKoqB4TpSI&list=RDe0TAR4d_FdM&index=3