Experiment: Visual Motor Reaction Time

Visual-Motor Reaction Time

At a stoplight, the instant it turns green, drivers react—some faster than others. But how quickly does your brain process the change and tell your foot to hit the gas? In this experiment, we explore visual reaction time—the interval between seeing a stimulus and responding with movement. A flash of light appears, and your brain races to process it. Your muscles spring into action, but how fast? Test your visual-motor response and see how quickly you react!

What Will You Learn?

How to measure and calculate your own visual-motor reaction times using muscle electrical activity.
How behaviors (hours of gaming) affect the time it takes for the nervous system to process various stimuli.
How to quantify and analyze data for scientific experiments.

Background

Humans have been fascinated by reaction time for centuries. Early scientists believed the body worked like a hydraulic system, but we now know our responses are powered by electrical signals traveling through neurons.

Using modern tools like the Human SpikerBox and the Reaction Timer, we can measure visual reaction time precisely. Whether catching a falling object or responding to a light change, the time it takes your brain to process the stimulus and activate movement can be measured and analyzed.

Procedure

Setup

Plug the Human SpikerBox into your device via USB then Connect the Reaction Timer using the orange cable. Make sure the Light is Turn right (On) and the other two switches are set to (Off).

Hook an arm up to the Human SpikerBox by attaching the two red clips to the stickers on the user’s forearm and the black clip to the sticker on the back of the user’s hand.

If you have more participants, 2 users can test at the same time. Connect player 2 to channel 2. They can race each other per trial for fastest RT!

Connect the electrode cable to the SpikerBox and make sure the battery is correctly installed. Open the SpikeRecorder software and turn on your SpikerBox.

Experiment

You are all set up! This task is made for 2-3 people, so you will need at least one partner! One of you will be the experimenter, the others the subject. You will record a Simple Reaction Time - how fast can you react with no distractions?

Have the subject(s) (hooked up to the Human SpikerBox) direct their attention to the Reaction Timer. Tell them their objective is to flex their muscle as fast as they can in response to hearing a sound or seeing a green LED light up.

For this experiment we will just be using the the green button. When you press it, an LED will light up green. The goal is for the subject to flex in response to the stimulus as quickly as possible.

Start recording on the SpikeRecorder App!

The experimenter will press the button 10 times at random intervals. Don't go too fast, and try to be random (sneaky). Cover your fingers with your hand so they have to react only to the light!

When you are all set. Measure the RT in SpikeRecorder using the procedure outlined here.

Calculate the average for many users. Who is the fastest?

Results & Analysis

Compare your results with the class. Do you see any differences between which arm (dominant vs non-dominant?). How about gamers vs. non-gamers.

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