practical - Investigating human reaction times.

what is reaction time

The time taken to respond to a stimulus.

what factors can effect the reaction time

Age, stress, drugs, and background noise.

what can you do to determine how factors affect reaction time

Perform simple experiments.

step 1

Ask a person who has not had caffeine that day and ask them to hold out their hand.

step 2

Hold a ruler vertically, 00 facing downwards, above their hand.

step 3

Tell them they must try to catch the ruler when it falls but do not tell them when that will be.

step 4

At a random time, drop the ruler into their hand.

step 5

Record where the top of their finger is on the ruler when they catch it. The quicker their reaction time, the shorter the distance will be on the ruler.  

step 6

Repeat this experiment a few times without caffeine to calculate the mean distance which equates to an average reaction time.

step 7

Repeat the whole experiment again after the person has had a caffeinated drink to investigate its affect on the reaction time.