Reaction and Movement Time

Question 1

Stages of a reaction

Answer 1

• Stimulus idnetification
• Decision making
• Movement initiation

Question 2

Premotor Reaction Time

Answer 2

Time to use vision

Question 3

Reaction Time (RT)

Answer 3

• used to determine how long it takes to prepare and initiate movement
• the time from stimulus identification to response initiation
• indicates how quickly information can be processed
• provides a window into the mental processes underlying motor skill performance

Question 4

Types of Reaction Time

Answer 4

• Simple RT
• > Stimulus = 1 signal; response = 1 action
• Choice RT
• > More than one signal, each with its own response

Question 5

Hick’s Law

Answer 5

• Reaction time is proportional to the number of equally likely choices an individual has
  RT = b*log2 (n+1)
  where b is a constant and n is the number of choices

Question 6

Hicks’s Law: Bits

Answer 6

• The unit of the log2 (n) term
• # of choices = 2^n (bits)
• If there is one yes/no choice = 1 bit
  Therefore hick’s law doesn’t only state that there will be an increase in RT with more choices but also predicts the magnitude of the increase

Question 7

Fitts’ Law

Answer 7

• Index of difficulty
• Includes the Amplitude of the movement and the Width of the target
• A factor which quantifies the difficulty of the movement
• Units are in Bits (similar to Hick’s)
  ID = log2 [2(A/W)}