Types of reaction time in psychology

Reaction Time Color

Author: John E. Williams, University of Mississippi

Editor: Karen Brakke, Spelman College

Introduction

This experiment presents visual stimuli and requires the participant to make a key-press response after seeing target stimuli under different conditions. Similar to the auditory stimulus reaction time experiment, this experiment gives students the opportunity to determine whether their reaction times are reliably different for tasks that require slightly different decisions.

Design

Each reaction time experiment uses a one-way experimental design with three levels to the independent variable, Type of Task. The three task types are:

1. A simple reaction time task in which participants press a key as quickly as possible after the stimulus (in this case, a block of color) has been presented.

2. A Go/NoGo reaction time task in which participants respond to one particular event (e.g., a red block of color) but ignore other events (e.g., a green block).

3. A choice reaction time task in which participants respond differentially to two stimuli by pressing one key for event A and a separate key for event B.

The Task variable is manipulated within subjects, which means that each participant receives all three tasks, but to control for potential order effects across different participants, the order in which the tasks are presented is randomly determined for any one participant. The dependent variable is the time from the onset of the stimulus to the key-press reaction measured to the nearest millisecond. For choice-reaction responses, responses are also scored for correctness.

Data Format and Download

New column included in data reports! There is a Profile ID included in new data reports. This is specific to each user. The User ID shown in old reports is now called Experiment Results ID. If a user takes an experiment multiple times, the Experiment Results ID will be different each time but the Profile ID will be consistent. To access the original data formats with User ID, use the OLD DATA files. The image below is not an exact representation of the XLS download. For more information, see our FAQs.

Data are downloadable in several formats (Microsoft Excel, CSV, XML, JSON). Figure 1 shows an excerpt from a sample Excel spreadsheet. The first seven columns provide classification data (profile ID, experiment results ID, gender, class ID, age, completion date, and time in experiment). The column labeled SIMPLE reflects the average reaction time (across trials) of the simple reaction time task. The column labeled GNG (Go/No Go) reflects the average reaction time (across trials) of the GNG task. The column labeled CHOICE reflects the average time (across trials) for the detection of a block of color.

https://opl.apa.org/OPL-Student/experiment/expLongDesp/ReactionTimeColor/ReactionTimeColor.jpgFigure 1

Example Data Analyses

To determine whether reaction time was affected in a systematic way by the nature of the task, students can group the mean or median reaction times for a set of research participants and then perform a repeated-measures analysis of variance on the grouped data.

Students who complete both the auditory and visual versions of the Reaction Time experiment can compare results from the two experiments to see if their reaction times for the different tasks were reliably faster for one stimulus type than the other.

Applications/Extensions

Although all of the reaction time tasks require similar simple motor responses, they differ in the type of decision that must be made. These decisions, in turn, require different processing times because the underlying cognitive processes that are involved differ. However, several other factors can affect processing and reaction time in tasks like these. Some of them involve the type or intensity of the stimulus. Other factors stem from the participants themselves. Level of arousal or distraction, age, gender, health status, or even personality type can influence reaction times. If these factors can affect results in these simple tasks, just think how they might affect our decisions and response times in the much more complex tasks that we face every day!

References

Bunce, D., MacDonald, S. W. S., & Hultsch, D. F. (2004). Inconsistency in serial choice decision and motor reaction times dissociate in younger and older adults. Brain & Cognition, 56, 320-327.

Hıdıroğlu, C., Torres, I. J., Er, A., Işık, G., Yalın, N., Yatham, L. N., ... & Özerdem, A. (2015). Response inhibition and interference control in patients with bipolar I disorder and first degree relatives. Bipolar Disorders, 17, 781-794.