Lab 4: Finger Reaction Time To Visual, Auditory and Combined Stimulus

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Anastasia Chong

Edgar Balanza
Brian Cisneros
Jenny Lou Cardinal
Ryan Kim
Lab 4: Finger reaction time to visual, auditory and combined stimulus
Introduction
Reaction time is the time between the presentation of the stimulus and the initial
movement. Movement time is the time between the initiation of movement and the completion of
the task. The concept of reaction time and movement time aid in understanding how our senses
are important in responding to life or death situations, athletic competitions and everyday
activities such as driving.
Previous studies have demonstrated that visual and auditory stimuli are important
mechanisms in reaction time. In one study, researchers found that simple reaction time was
faster for the auditory stimuli than visual stimuli and that there was fast processing time in the
auditory cortex and motor cortex in reaction to auditory stimuli (Shelton & Kumar, 2010). Another
study found that reaction time was shorter for auditory stimuli than visual stimuli in both healthy
male and female medical students (Shenvi & Balasubramanian, 1992). Also, a recent study
measured the response time in visual, auditory, and tactile stimulus. The researchers in the
study found that the response time to the auditory stimulus was faster than the visual stimulus,
but tactile was the fastest response time between the three stimuli (Ng & Chan, 2012). In the
various studies, the researchers found that our sensory inputs such as sound and vision are
crucial mechanisms in responding to activities. We would like to examine if moving from one
target to another desired target by sound and visual stimuli would result in the same effects and
outcome as the previous studies involving stimulus modality.
The purpose of this experiment is to examine reaction times and movement times
between three conditions. We hypothesize that subjects will have a shorter reaction time and
movement time when hearing a stimulus compared to seeing a stimulus because the brain
processes visual information longer than auditory information. We also hypothesize that
subjects will have shorter reaction times and movement times when they see and hear the
stimulus simultaneously compared to only one stimulus because there is more sensory inputs to
help us react faster than only having one stimulus.

Materials and Methods


Preparation:
Reaction and movement times were recorded using MOART Reaction and Movement Time
Panel with Psymcon Control (Figure 1). The settings were set to record simple reaction with
movement times. Stimuli were changed for each condition to green light, high pitch sound, and
green light and high pitch sound together.
Testing Protocol:
Ten subjects were used in this study to measure their reaction time and movement time to three
different conditions: light, sound, and light with sound. Each subject was instructed to place their
index finger from their dominant hand on a initial target and tap a distant target 22.5 cm away
when the stimulus was presented. In the light condition, the visual stimuli was a green light for
the subjects to react to. In the sound condition, the auditory stimuli was a high pitch tone for the
subjects to react to. The stimuli were not presented at consistent times. Each subject responded
to stimuli by random order. Ten trials were done for each condition.

Figure 1: MOART Reaction and Movement Time Panel with Psymcon Control.

Data Analysis:
Data were manually imported to Excel in which average reaction time and movement time
between all of the subjects were calculated.
T-tests were calculated using excel to determine if each stimulus had a significantly different
result than the other. Reaction time to light stimulus was compared to reaction time to sound
stimulus. Reaction time to light stimulus was also compared to reaction times to both light and
sound stimulus and the reaction times to sound stimulus was compared to both light and sound
stimulus.
After the end of all three trials, subjects were asked which of the three conditions was the
easiest and the most difficult to complete. The questionnaire was conducted to help in
comparing the reaction time results to their opinions regarding the conditions. Two subjects
believed the light stimulus was the hardest and both stimuli was the easiest. Five subjects
replied that light stimulus was the hardest and sound stimulus was the easiest. Two subjects
said that all the conditions were the same. One subject believed that sound stimulus was the
easiest and the other two conditions were the same.
Results
Reaction time was shorter when hearing a stimulus compared to seeing a stimulus
because the average reaction time for the auditory stimulus was 0.24844 seconds while the
reaction time to visual stimulus was 0.2835 seconds (Figure 2 and Table 1). There was an
increase of 0.03506 seconds in average time of reaction from the sound condition to the visual
condition (Figure 2 and Table 1). The subjects showed that reaction to the stimulus of light was
significantly different than reaction to the auditory stimulus (p=0.004462276255). Movement
time did show a slightly shorter time in the light stimulus compared to the sound stimulus
because the average movement time for the auditory stimulus was 0.20044 seconds while the
movement time to visual stimulus was 0.21231 seconds (Figure 3 and Table 2). The subjects did
not show a significant difference between the auditory and visual stimuli (p=0.161072846). The
results showed that the first part of our hypothesis was supported by the figures and tables
displaying a shorter reaction time to the auditory condition than the visual condition. The data
conveyed that sound is a better indication to react to a motive than vision. However, the results
showed that our second part of our hypothesis was not supported because the t-tests that were
conducted did not show a significant difference between the sound and light stimuli.
Subjects reacting to a stimulus with both light and sound proved to have a faster reaction
time than to just one stimulus. The stimulus with both light and sound had a reaction time of
0.23527 seconds, making it 0.04823 seconds faster than the light stimulus and 0.01317
seconds faster than the sound stimulus (Figure 2 and Table 1). By all of our figures provided,
reaction time to the stimulus of light and sound was significantly different with the single
stimulus of light (p=0.000248361). The reaction time with sound and both light and sound
proved it was not significantly different (p=0.07926219). The average movement time for the
light stimulus was 0.21231 seconds and the average movement time for the sound stimulus was
0.20044 seconds (Figure 3 and Table 2). The average movement time for the stimulus of both
light and sound was 0.19646 seconds, 0.01585 seconds faster than the light stimulus and

0.00398 seconds faster than the sound stimulus (Figure 3 and Table 2). The movement time
comparing the combined stimulus of light and sound and the single stimulus of sound showed
no significant difference (p=0.61095708). The movement time comparing both light and sound
to the stimulus of light did not show a significant difference as well (p=0.191475165). Using the
information gathered, only a part of our hypothesis was supported where the combined stimulus
proved to have a better reaction time than just a light stimulus. However, the results displayed
that our second hypothesis was not supported because the t-tests showed no significant
difference with movement time with single stimulus and combined stimuli.

Figure 2. Bar graph comparing the average reaction time within three different conditions.

Figure 3. Bar Graph comparing Movement Time (MT) within three different conditions

Table 1. Table representing average time in seconds of reaction time to three different
stimuli/conditions
Condition
Reaction Time
(Seconds)

Light

Sound

Both

0.2835

0.24844

0.23527

Table 2. Table representing average time in seconds of movement time to three different
stimuli/conditions
Condition
Movement Time
(Seconds)

Light

Sound

Both

0.21231

0.20044

0.19646

Table 3. P-Values comparing movement time to different stimuli


Stimuli Comparison
P Values

Auditory vs Visual
0.161072846

Visual vs Both
0.191475165

Auditory vs Both
0.610957038

Table 4. P-Values comparing reaction time to different stimuli


Stimuli Comparison

Auditory vs Visual

Visual vs. Both

Auditory vs. Both

P Value

0.004462276255

0.0002483608357

0.0792621948

Discussion
In the present study, we investigated how reaction time varied in three different
conditions. Our results showed in Figure 2 that the subjects reaction times were shorter with the
sound stimulus. Through the questionnaires, seven out of the ten subjects believed that the light
stimulus was the most difficult trial, and five subjects believed that the sound stimulus was the
easiest. This confirmed the first part of our hypothesis in which faster reaction time occurs when
presented with an auditory stimulus versus visual stimulus. However, even though movement
time in the visual stimulus was slightly faster than the auditory stimulus they were not
significantly different. The data showed that there may not be a correlation between movement
time and the three conditions, which results in rejecting the second part of our hypothesis. Our
findings were similar to previous studies conducted by Shelton & Kumar and Shenvi &
Balasubramanian in which the results showed a faster reaction time with auditory stimulus
because the brain processes visual information longer than auditory information .
Furthermore, the data also confirmed that both auditory and visual stimuli that were
presented simultaneously resulted in shorter reaction time than visual or sound stimuli
presented alone as illustrated in Figure 3. Two subjects reported that the light stimulus was the
most difficult and combined stimulus was the easiest task. The data confirmed the first part of
our hypothesis in which we indicated that faster reaction time occurs when combined stimulus is
presented than one stimulus alone. However, the reaction time of the combined stimulus and
single stimulus of sound did not prove to be a significant difference. One plausible explanation
for having very similar reaction times for an auditory stimulus and both stimuli was that subjects
focused more on the auditory stimulus when presented with both stimuli. Subjects focused
solely on sound when they were being tested on both stimuli. Although the combined stimulus
proved to be slightly faster than the single stimulus in movement time, there was no correlation
in affecting our data, thus our hypothesis was rejected.
One of the limitations of our study was the practice effects. As the participants
consistently perform the task, they became acquainted with the procedure of the activity which
may have improved their performance. Another limitation was the subjects also focused on the
sound of the control button that creates the visual stimulus to determine when the stimulus
would appear, thus giving them a better reaction time. Thus, this can lead to subjects reacting to
only the auditory stimulus and ignoring the visual stimulus when presented with both.

References
Ng, A., & Chan, A. (2012). Finger response times to visual, auditory and tactile modality stimuli. In
Proceedings of the International MultiConference of Engineers and Computer Scientists (Vol. 2,
pp.
1449-1454).
Shelton, J., & Kumar, G. P. (2010). Comparison between auditory and visual simple reaction times.
Neuroscience & Medicine, 1(01), 30.
Shenvi, D., & Balasubramanian, P.. (1994). A comparative study of visual and auditory reaction times in
males and females. Indian journal of physiology and pharmacology, 38, 229-229.

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