Response Time Flashcards
What is response time?
The time taken from the onset of a stimulus to the completion of a task.
What’s the response time equation?
Response time = reaction time + movement time
What is reaction time?
The time taken from the onset of a stimulus to the onset of a response.
What is movement time?
The time taken to complete the task
What’s an example of reaction time?
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.
What is not involved in reaction time?
There’s no movement.
How long is reaction time?
The fraction of a second it takes us to process the available selected stimuli.
What’s an example of movement time?
In a 100m sprint, the movement time would be the time between pushing against the blocks and hitting the tape.
What’s an example of response time?
In a 100m race the response time would be the time between hearing the gun and hitting the tape.
What is a simple reaction time?
Is when there is one specific response to one stimulus.
What’s an example of a simple reaction time?
The swimmer or the athlete at the start of a race responding to the starter’s gun.
What should a simple reaction time produce?
This one choice should produce a fast reaction and response since the athlete has only one thing to think about before they react.
What is a choice reaction time?
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.
What’s an example of choice reaction?
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.
What is Hick’s law?
Reaction time increases as the number of choices increases.
How can Hick’s law be an advantage?
A player can try to keep their opponent guessing
What’s an example of Hick’s law being an advantage?
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.
What’s an example of Hick’s law being a problem?
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.
What’s the single-channel hypothesis?
It states that stimuli can only be processed one at a time.
What happens in the single-channel hypothesis?
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.
What does the delay in processing a second stimulus do?
Increases response time and goes some way to explaining Hick’s law: the more choice, the slower the response.
What is the psychological refractory period?
A delay when a second stimulus is presented before the first has been processed.
What happens during the PRP?
The performer might freeze completely for the split second it takes to sort out the conflicting information.
What’s an example the PRP?
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.
