Response Time

Question 1

What is response time?

Answer 1

The time taken from the onset of a stimulus to the completion of a task.

Question 2

What’s the response time equation?

Answer 2

Response time = reaction time + movement time

Question 3

What is reaction time?

Answer 3

The time taken from the onset of a stimulus to the onset of a response.

Question 4

What is movement time?

Answer 4

The time taken to complete the task

Question 5

What’s an example of reaction time?

Answer 5

At the start of a race, your reaction time would be the period from hearing the gun until you were just about to push against the blocks.

Question 6

What is not involved in reaction time?

Answer 6

There’s no movement.

Question 7

How long is reaction time?

Answer 7

The fraction of a second it takes us to process the available selected stimuli.

Question 8

What’s an example of movement time?

Answer 8

In a 100m sprint, the movement time would be the time between pushing against the blocks and hitting the tape.

Question 9

What’s an example of response time?

Answer 9

In a 100m race the response time would be the time between hearing the gun and hitting the tape.

Question 10

What is a simple reaction time?

Answer 10

Is when there is one specific response to one stimulus.

Question 11

What’s an example of a simple reaction time?

Answer 11

The swimmer or the athlete at the start of a race responding to the starter’s gun.

Question 12

What should a simple reaction time produce?

Answer 12

This one choice should produce a fast reaction and response since the athlete has only one thing to think about before they react.

Question 13

What is a choice reaction time?

Answer 13

Choosing from numerous stimuli or having to choose a number of responses once the correct stimulus has been chosen.
The response time is much slower now.

Question 14

What’s an example of choice reaction?

Answer 14

In team games, a key player with decisions to make such as a midfield player in hockey has to choose the correct stimulus from various indicators on the pitch and may also have to choose the correct response from various options.

Question 15

What is Hick’s law?

Answer 15

Reaction time increases as the number of choices increases.

Question 16

How can Hick’s law be an advantage?

Answer 16

A player can try to keep their opponent guessing

Question 17

What’s an example of Hick’s law being an advantage?

Answer 17

A tennis serve - a player can mix up the your serves with direction or slice so that the opponent is never sure which one they are going to face.
The variety will increase response preparation time and hopefully delay the actions of the opponent.

Question 18

What’s an example of Hick’s law being a problem?

Answer 18

Players can become familiar with their environment and in tennis, as the game gets into its later stages, the opponent may have got used to the types of serves being played and the response becomes slightly quicker.

Question 19

What’s the single-channel hypothesis?

Answer 19

It states that stimuli can only be processed one at a time.

Question 20

What happens in the single-channel hypothesis?

Answer 20

Only one stimulus can be processed at a time.
Therefore, a second stimulus must wait until the first has been processed before it can be processed.
Any following stimuli must also wait to be processed.

Question 21

What does the delay in processing a second stimulus do?

Answer 21

Increases response time and goes some way to explaining Hick’s law: the more choice, the slower the response.

Question 22

What is the psychological refractory period?

Answer 22

A delay when a second stimulus is presented before the first has been processed.

Question 23

What happens during the PRP?

Answer 23

The performer might freeze completely for the split second it takes to sort out the conflicting information.

Question 24

What’s an example the PRP?

Answer 24

Playing tennis and the ball has been hit by your opponent to your forehand. You are set to volley but the ball hits the net and deflects to your backhand.
You have to sort out the new and correct stimulus, but first you have to disregard the old and now useless stimulus and this causes a delay.

Question 25

How can the PRP be used to someone’s advantage?

Answer 25

There are ways to deceive your opponent to force a delay in their response.
For example, performing a fake or dummy pass in a team game or by using fake body language to fool your opponent such as standing as if you are going to do a short serve in badminton and then hitting the shuttlecock long.

Question 26

What are the stages of the PRP?

Answer 26

S1 - the first stimulus (the ball to the right for a right-hand volley in tennis).
R1 - response to S1 (a right-handed forehand volley)

S2 - the ball hitting the net which means the volley is now not going to happen.
R2 - the response to the deflection which will happen, or not, after a delay while S1 is dealt with, even though it might not now happen.

Question 27

What is anticipation?

Answer 27

Pre-judging a stimulus.

Question 28

What are examples of stimuli?

Answer 28

Singles from opponents, or cues - Body language and positioning.

Learnt either before or throughout the game.

Question 29

What are the two part of anticipation?

Answer 29

Temporal anticipation

Spatial anticipation

Question 30

What is temporal anticipation?

Answer 30

When it is going to happen

Question 31

What is spatial anticipation?

Answer 31

Where and what is going to happen

Question 32

What’s an example of temporal and spatial anticipation?

Answer 32

In anticipation you need to know both, so that when judging the catch of a high ball in rugby, the player needs to know where on the pitch the ball is going to land and when it will get there.

Question 33

What does correct anticipation improve?

Answer 33

Response time.
As the info processing process speeds up, the info has been processed before the action has happened, so the movement aspect of the response can happen immediately.

Question 34

Why should players be aware of the affects of PRP? (Anticipation)

Answer 34

If the anticipation is incorrectly judged and the stimulus that is presented is not the one expected, then there will be a delay while the actual and second stimulus are processed.

Question 35

What are the ways to improve respond time?

Answer 35

Use mental practice - go over task to predict response.
Train to the specific stimulus expected in the game - produce go to response.
Learn to focus and concentrate so stimulus can be picked up early.
Improving fitness improves reaction time.
Can try to use anticipation to predict the stimulus.
Learn what others have done before and learn to do the same.