Kelly+Glick 

Do Video Game Players Have a Faster Reaction Time Than Non- Video Game Players? By: Kelly Glick 1st hour

Purpose: Many video games involve players having to detect and avoid dangers. But does this mean that they have a faster reaction time than those who don't play video games? Or do they just already have fast reaction times? The first human interest in reaction time first started in 1865, as a result of the work of Dutch physiologist F. C. Donders. Donders wondered if someone's reaction time, or time that elapses between a stimulus and the response to it, could be measured. At that point in history a person's reaction time was thought to be too fast to measure. Now whether you know it or not you have probably done a reaction time test at some point in your life. For example, we've all taken the hearing test for school, our reaction time was the time that elapsed between when we heard the beep to when we raised our hand to indicate that we heard it. Some studies have shown that your reaction time slowly gets faster as you age until about your late 20s, this is when your reaction time is the fastest. Then after your 20s your reaction time slowly increases until your 60s and then they start to increase faster. So could it just be that video game players seem to to have a faster reaction time because most of them are in there teens? Or does spending multiple hours a day add up to you having a faster reaction time?

Hypothesis: If you play video games for more than 5 hours a week, then you will have a faster reaction time than those that don't.

Materials: -5 video game players (play video games for more than 5 hours a week) -5 non video game players (don't play video games) -1 meter stick -1 stopwatch

Procedure: 1. Gather all 10 volunteers 2. Have them all catch the ruler that I will drop 3. Gather data from the results of the activities 4. Put data into a table and graph 5. Draw conclusions based on the data

__** Non- Video Game Players **__
 * ~ Distance ||~ Time ||
 * 3 3/4 in. || 0.26 sec. ||
 * 7 7/8 in. || 0.43 sec. ||
 * 2 7/8 in. || 0.19 sec. ||
 * 6 3/4 in. || 0.38 sec. ||
 * 4 1/8 in. || 0.28 sec. ||

__** Video Game Players **__
 * ~ Distance ||~ Time ||
 * 7/8 in || 0.17 sec. ||
 * 3 in. || 0.24 sec. ||
 * 2 3/4 in. || 0.18 sec. ||
 * 1 1/8 in. || 0.12 sec. ||
 * 3 2/3 in. || 0.25 sec. ||

__Analysis:__ To test if my hypothesis was right I first did some reaction time tests on my classmates. The tests that I did was I dropped a ruler and timed how long it took for them to catch it, and were on the ruler they caught it. Then I gathered all of the information into two charts, one was for those that don't play video games and those that do play video games. In both of the charts I put in the first column I put at what inch there fingers were at when they caught it, then in the next column I put how many seconds it took for them to catch the ruler. I started to notice a trend within the two charts, that the distances and times of the non-video game players were all over the place while the video game players was all about the same. I think that is is because the non-video game players can be anyone, while the video game players were mainly males who played sports. Finally I compared the two charts' distance and time and saw that the distances and times of the video game players was faster than that of the non-video game players.

__Conclusion:__ My hypothesis was that if you played video games for more than 5 hours a week, then you would have a faster reaction time than those that don't play video games. And after comparing and contrasting the data that I collected from my tests I found that my hypothesis was correct video game players do have a faster reaction time than non-video game players. This can be for various reasons, for example while playing video games you are constantly being confronted with a challenge and you have to react quickly and accurately. So after many years of playing video games for multiple hours a week that would equal up to them having a faster reaction time. Another reason could be that many of those that play video games are usually males and males are said to have faster reaction times than women do. Video game players usually play some type of sport, and playing sports helps to improve your reaction time as well. But overall you can see that there are many reasons that a video game player could have a faster reaction time than non-video game players.

__Limitations:__ Errors 1. Someone would say go when they started the stopwatch and person catching the ruler would just close their fingers right away. 2. The regular 12 in ruler was hard to drop and catch. 3. One trial of dropping and catching the ruler wasn't accurate enough. Solutions 1. I would both drop the ruler and start and stop the stopwatch. 2. I started using a meter stick instead of a 12 in ruler. 3. I had the volunteers do multiple trials to get it accurate. New hypothesis: If you play video games, then your reaction time will be faster than people who don't play video games.

Bibliography: This site has multiple reaction time tests: - Vincent, J. (2009). Reaction Time Tester. Retrieved February 26, 2013, from http://www.flashscience.com/biology/reaction_time.htm

This site explains the history of reaction time and people have been testing reaction times since 1865: - Perera, T. B., Haupt, E. J. MUSEUM OF THE HISTORY OF REACTION TIME RESEARCH. Retrieved February 26, 2013, from http://tomperera.com/psychology_museum/mrt.htm