How does sight and hearing affect your reaction time?
Introduction/Background:
Many researchers have confirmed that the reaction time for sound is faster than reaction time for sight. Average reaction times for hearing being 140-160 milliseconds and a visual reaction time being 180-200 milliseconds. (Galton, 1899; Woodworth and Schlosberg, 1954). This is because an auditory stimulus only takes 8-10 milliseconds to reach the brain (Kemp et al., 1973) whilst a visual stimulus takes 20-40 milliseconds (Marshall et al., 1943).
To prove these results, our experiment tests how hearing and sight affects your reaction in numerous ways, including using a blindfold to rely on sight, using noise-cancelling headphones playing relaxing music and using …show more content…
Steps 1-8 were repeated on 3 more participants.
Discussion:
In an effort to determine how reaction time is affected by sight and hearing we performed an experiment. This experiment involved catching a falling ruler with both senses available, only hearing available, only sight available with relaxing music being played and only sight available with soft rock music being played. These different scenarios allowed us to compare what senses our reaction time mostly relies on.
In the results obtained from this experiment there is a clear pattern that our reaction time is faster when we are only relying on our hearing with typically a 2-3cm decrease on the ruler. There were only one out of the four tests that proved differently which was the first one where the measurement increased by approximately 3.6cm. That could’ve primarily been that the tester didn’t have as good hearing as the other three testers or they simply relied on their sight more. Another interesting observation was that the relaxing music mostly made the tester’s reaction time slower with higher ruler measurements. These observations match up with the observations of Kemp and Marshall as mentioned in the introduction which were with the auditory stimulus only taking 8-10 milliseconds to reach the brain (Kemp et al., 1973) whilst a visual stimulus takes 20-40 milliseconds (Marshall et al., …show more content…
When conducting the experiment the distance that the testers fingers were apart before catching should’ve been consistent at approximately 8cm apart to ensure a fair test. Another way that we could’ve seen the difference in reaction time would’ve been to test the dominant hand as it would have allowed us to compare another set of results.
Conclusion:
To conclude, through this experiment we have proved that auditory stimulus is faster than visual stimulus. This is because overall the results showed that with only hearing available the measurements on the ruler were less than when the tester could see the ruler and when the tester had both senses available. The outcome was incorrectly predicted in the hypothesis because it stated, “When both senses are available, reaction time performs at its best.”. This statement is incorrect because the results showed that reaction time performed at its best when it was purely relying on
Introduction/Background:
Many researchers have confirmed that the reaction time for sound is faster than reaction time for sight. Average reaction times for hearing being 140-160 milliseconds and a visual reaction time being 180-200 milliseconds. (Galton, 1899; Woodworth and Schlosberg, 1954). This is because an auditory stimulus only takes 8-10 milliseconds to reach the brain (Kemp et al., 1973) whilst a visual stimulus takes 20-40 milliseconds (Marshall et al., 1943).
To prove these results, our experiment tests how hearing and sight affects your reaction in numerous ways, including using a blindfold to rely on sight, using noise-cancelling headphones playing relaxing music and using …show more content…
Steps 1-8 were repeated on 3 more participants.
Discussion:
In an effort to determine how reaction time is affected by sight and hearing we performed an experiment. This experiment involved catching a falling ruler with both senses available, only hearing available, only sight available with relaxing music being played and only sight available with soft rock music being played. These different scenarios allowed us to compare what senses our reaction time mostly relies on.
In the results obtained from this experiment there is a clear pattern that our reaction time is faster when we are only relying on our hearing with typically a 2-3cm decrease on the ruler. There were only one out of the four tests that proved differently which was the first one where the measurement increased by approximately 3.6cm. That could’ve primarily been that the tester didn’t have as good hearing as the other three testers or they simply relied on their sight more. Another interesting observation was that the relaxing music mostly made the tester’s reaction time slower with higher ruler measurements. These observations match up with the observations of Kemp and Marshall as mentioned in the introduction which were with the auditory stimulus only taking 8-10 milliseconds to reach the brain (Kemp et al., 1973) whilst a visual stimulus takes 20-40 milliseconds (Marshall et al., …show more content…
When conducting the experiment the distance that the testers fingers were apart before catching should’ve been consistent at approximately 8cm apart to ensure a fair test. Another way that we could’ve seen the difference in reaction time would’ve been to test the dominant hand as it would have allowed us to compare another set of results.
Conclusion:
To conclude, through this experiment we have proved that auditory stimulus is faster than visual stimulus. This is because overall the results showed that with only hearing available the measurements on the ruler were less than when the tester could see the ruler and when the tester had both senses available. The outcome was incorrectly predicted in the hypothesis because it stated, “When both senses are available, reaction time performs at its best.”. This statement is incorrect because the results showed that reaction time performed at its best when it was purely relying on