S11 Reaction Time

The Reaction Time lesson demonstrates the effect of learning and physiological processes on reaction times. Students hear two presentation schedules of clicks through a set of headphones. With electrodes in place to record the activity of the extensor digitorum (the primary muscle used to lift a finger), the Subject lifts finger as quickly as possible after hearing a click. Students then perform a statistical analysis of the results, including: group mean, variance, and standard deviation.

Experimental Objectives

  1. Measure and compare reaction times of an individual subject using two stimulus presentation schedules: fixed intervals and pseudo-random intervals.
  2. Introduce elements of statistics into data analysis.
  3. Use statistics to determine the effects of learning on reaction times.

Tasks Performed by the Student

  • React to a schedule of fixed interval clicks (two trials).
  • React to a schedule of pseudo-random clicks (two trials).

Videos

Biopac Student Lab Student Download

Student Prep & Distance Learning

Click the link(s) below for sample data and/or lesson procedure video(s), BSL PRO Lesson procedures (PDF) for human lessons*, and graph template files (*.gtl) for BSL PRO Lessons. If more than one .gtl is available, download the .gtl with the _suffix to match BSL version and hardware.

Lesson Hardware

This lesson requires a Biopac Science Lab (MP40) System and the following hardware. If your BScL System does not include all hardware items, expand your system by selecting required items below.

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