How Does Texting Or Talking Affect Reaction Time More?

Conclusion
The original question was “Will texting or talking affect reaction time more?”. The hypothesis is : If a meter stick is dropped and caught while texting or talking to test the subject’s reaction time, then texting will have more of a reaction time than talking. This test measures reaction time of texting and talking to know which of the two are more dangerous to multitask with. Texting uses three distractions of the brain, visual, cognitive, and manual while talking just uses manual and cognitive. Texting on the phone had an average reaction time of 66.41 centimeters. Talking on the phone had an average reaction time of 64.65 centimeters. No distractions had an average reaction time of 47.50 centimeters. Therefore, the data does support the original hypothesis. In the brain, there are three distractions - cognitive, visual, and manual. First, you must know that the focus of the subject is catching the meter stick. When the subject was texting on the phone, the subject is distracted by cognitive, manual, and visual distractions. That is because the subject is not looking at the meter stick but the phone which makes it a visual distraction. Since the subject is using a hand to hold the phone (not just using his/her hands for catching the meter stick), that makes it a manual …show more content…
Therefore, multitasking with texting is a bigger distraction than talking. There are many accidents with phones while driving and walking since it makes your reaction time slower. This experiment brings more awareness of those accidents and to inform people that multitasking with phones does not do them good but worse. It would be interesting to study the effect of texting on the brain. Does it make human minds learn slower or faster than humans that do not text? A different topic to research would be if having a phone around a person all the time effect the person’s body or