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Reaction Times and

Hypothesis Testing

The nervous system allows the brain to communicate with every part of the body. It
controls your senses, collects information about the world around you, interprets the
information and generates responses (if necessary). Your ability to react to stimuli, such as
catching a ball, depends on how fast messages get transmitted and interpreted by your
brain.
The time between when you sense something and when you initiate a motor
response is called the reaction time. Scientists study people’s reaction times under
different conditions to learn more about how the nervous system works since many
factors can affect reaction times (including age, gender, physical fitness, practice, whether
the reaction comes from your dominant or non-dominant hand, and even the type of
stimulus).
In this lab, you will develop a hypothesis about the effects of a distracting behavior
(texting) on an activity that requires attention and quick reaction times (tranquilizing sheep).
You measure your reaction time using a simulation in which you fire a
tranquilizing dart at sheep that dash across your screen. The faster your reaction
time, the more quickly you will dart the sheep. After 5 tries, the simulation stops and
provides you with your average reaction time. After collecting data on your reaction
time, you will then try the simulation using a distraction - texting on your phone –
and determine how this impacts your reaction time.

In real life, the implications of distraction are obvious. According the Insurance Institute
for Highway Safety, 47 states have laws banning texting while driving in 2017. Despite this ban,
nearly 1 in 4 traffic accidents in the United States are caused by texting and driving. In this lab,
you will determine the effects of a distraction on reaction time. If your reaction time is affected
by a distraction while simply playing a game, imagine the effects on a task requiring much more
concentration and where the stakes are considerably higher (like driving!)









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Experimental Design: Form a hypothesis about the effects of a distraction on the average
reaction time. Provide a rationale (explain why you think this – base it on what you know about
how reaction time works – see page 1 of the lab handout to help you develop your rationale).
Hypothesis:





Control variables: What variables do we want to control? Think about things that we will want
to keep constant between individuals playing the game. We are really trying to see how
distractions affect reaction time, so think about other things we want to control between
participants. List as many as you can think of, even if they are ones we can’t control.





Independent Variable: What is the independent variable (the variable you have control over, or
what you can choose and/or manipulate)?


Dependent Variable: What is the dependent variable (the thing you are measuring in the
experiment)?

Procedure:
1. Google “Sheep Dash”, which should lead directly to the BBC site hosting the app/game.
This site appears to be browser sensitive, and students have better luck with Firefox
than Chrome. Alternatively, here is a direct link to the game.
• www.bbc.co.uk/science/humanbody/sleep/sheep/reaction_version5.swf
2. Play one round of the game to get a feel for the controls.
3. Play the game. When you have finished darting 5 sheep, a summary screen will provide
you with your average reaction time. Record it in the tale on the next page.
4. Repeat this 4 more times and add the results of each trial to the table on the next page.
5. Now try to dart the sheep while distracted. Using your cell phone, pick a number or
contact you want to text. You don’t have to actually send the text, so any number will
do. When you are ready to being texting, start the darting simulation.
6. Once the simulation starts, start texting the Pledge Allegiance. If you can’t remember
the Pledge, try typing something you do know like the Star Spangled Banner or the digits
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of Pi or Twinkle Twinkle Little Star – do this while the simulation runs. Once you have
tried to dart 5 sheep, stop texting and record your average response time.
7. Repeat this experiment 4 more times and record your results.
8. Let your lab partner try the experiment, and record their results in Table 2.
9. Calculate the average for you and your lab partner, then calculate the overall averages
in Table 3.
10. Answer the post lab questions.

Results:
Table 1. Your Results

Reaction Times

Normal Texting

Trial 1

Trial 2

Trial 3

Trial 4

Trial 5

Average

Table 2. Your Lab Partner’s Results

Reaction Times

Normal Texting

Trial 1

Trial 2

Trial 3

Trial 4

Trial 5

Average

Table 3. Average reaction times (average of your results and your lab partner’s):

Normal Texting

Average
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Post Lab Questions:

Answer the following questions on a separate piece of paper!
1 Looking at the average response times with and without the texting distraction (in table 3),
briefly summarize the results.

2 Was your hypothesis supported? If “yes” what does this tell you about reaction times and
distractions like texting? If “no”, why not?

3 Most studies have shown that performing a distracting task has many negative effects
besides the risks of distracted driving. What are some other activities that may be impacted by
distractions? How will they be impacted? You may want to check out these studies to help
answer this question:
• http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/17/technology/17distracted.html
• https://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/multitasking-a-medical-and-mental-hazard-
201201074063
• www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0747563210000646

4 If you could repeat this study, what changes might you consider making to the experimental
design that would make your study more effective? Testing more people is an obvious one, but
what things might you want to test or what variables might you want to control that you
couldn’t in this study?

The following data chart shows the results of two separate drivers under various driving
conditions. Use the following data to answer questions 5 and 6 below:
Driving
Conditions Driver I Driver II Driver III Driver IV AVERAGE

Baseline: .45 sec. .57 sec .39 sec. .56 sec.

Alcohol 1.3 sec 2.2 sec 0.9 sec 3.1 sec

impaired:

Reading text
.88 sec. 1.36 sec .50 sec. .91 sec.
message:

Texting: .80 sec. 1.44 sec .48 sec. 1.24 sec.

5 Calculate the average reaction times for each condition and add the results to the last column
in the table. Make a column (bar) graph of the results; put the driving conditions on the x-axis
and average reaction time on the y-axis. Label the axes and give the graph a descriptive title.

6 Summarize the results: what condition most affected the average reaction time? How does
reading and texting affect reaction time compared to alcohol impairment?


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Teacher Notes

This lab is intended to be a lab that introduces the process of science. As such, it is usually the
first lab of the year in my curriculum. It introduces the scientific method, gets students
generating hypotheses, identifying independent, dependent and control variables, and
introduces basic data analysis (calculating averages) and generating graphs in science. However,
the lab could also be used in a unit on anatomy (the brain) or psychology (effects of
multitasking).

I chose to use a game I found online for this activity. You can likely use any activity you like so
long as you are able to collect data on reaction time. A low-tech version of this lab involves
dropping a meter stick. One student drops it at random times between the fingers of another
student. The student pinches the meter stick as it falls; students can measure how far the meter
stick fell before it was pinched which is an indirect measure of reaction time.

The game I used (from the BBC website) has students click a button when sheep dash across the
screen. After 5 sheep dash across the screen, the game gives you your average reaction time.

I have students run the game 5 times, and then repeat it 5 times but while texting a message.
You can mix it up a little based on experimental design discussions you have with the class (for
example, some students want to vary when they text or don’t text – so rather than 5 non-
distracted and 5 distracted, they may vary it with 1 trial distracted followed by a non-distracted).
Students record their average reaction times for 5 trials of distracted and non-distracted, and
then they let their lab partner do it. The lab handout I provided has students calculate averages
of their 5 trials AND their lab partners, but I have also had students write their averages on the
whiteboard while I calculate class averages. Students then create a column graph of class
averages rather than individual results.

The lab should be preceded by a discussion of experimental design. I have students think about
dependent and independent variables, and identify them in the lab. We also have a discussion
about what variables they would like to control (age, experience texting, type if phone, type of
keyboard, type of laptop etc). The write up is a great chance to review graphing in science. The
graph is remarkably simple – just a column graph with 2 categories. We talk about what goes on
each axis, how to label axes and how to title graphs in science. Since we are a laptop school, I
actually step through the process of creating a graph using Excel or Google Sheets with them.

The data in the post-lab questions table are made up. I believe that reaction times while
intoxicated are slightly better than while texting (according to a study done by Car and Driver),
but the jury is still out on that as far as I know. As a class, we have a discussion about this – even
if your reaction time is slightly better while intoxicated, your reaction time can return to
“normal” faster (immediately!) if you put down your phone. Intoxicated reaction times don’t
return to normal or baseline reaction times until you sober up.

I embedded hyperlinks in some of the instructions and questions. Students just click on them to
access the links. If they did not go through, email me and I will send you the links directly.

For fun, you may want to have students try the simulation below. You will need a cell phone and
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access to a computer. The simulation requires you to drive a car while the simulation
occasionally sends you text messages to which you must respond. If you go too fast or too slow,
you will get pulled over. If you crash the car, obviously you will get pulled over! Try texting and
driving while the stakes are low to see how it impacts your driving performance.
http://www.itcanwaitsimulator.org/simulator.html