Date: 7th April 25, 2022
Name: Neel Hingorani
Class: ISP2
Title: How does age in years affect reaction time in milli seconds of people as determined by the
smallest time needed to start and stop a stopwatch-case study of reaction/reflex time on touch.
Abstract/background:
Reaction time is the length of time a person takes to react at something in this case it’s the
smallest possible time needed to start/stop a stopwatch. Reaction time usually depends on what
the person is reacting on, as an automatic result its touch, which is averagely 15 milli seconds
response time or reaction time. This action takes place when the peripheral nervous system
(Contains thousands of nerves that connect to the spinal cord which enable muscle movement)
sends signal to the spinal cord then to the nerve which conduct them as they pass through the
fascicle which has hundreds of neurons with axons(Information carriers) that transmit
information from one neuron(Transmit signals/axons) to the other for an action to take place,
which faces through physical changes as age increases, In this experiment the main interest is to
investigate how age in years affects reaction time in milli seconds of people as determined by the
smallest possible time needed to start/stop a stopwatch-case study of reaction time on touch.
Which means that we are trying to know the trend and the interconnection between age in years
and reaction time in milli seconds, for this experiment to be conducted the following steps were
carried out, as stated below
Firstly, gather all the materials in this case a stopwatch and 60 volunteers with their permission
according to ascending ages groups in years, then ask each participant from each age group to
start and stop as fast as they can within 3 constant trials.
Aim: To find out how different ages in years affect reaction time or speed in milli seconds, as
determined by the smallest time given to start/stop the stopwatch-case study of touch.
Research.Q: Does age in years affect reaction time of human beings based on the sense of
touch?
Hypothesis: The older the person, the longer the time it will take for the person to react to the
sense of touch, since older people tend to have lower conduction of neurons which makes it
transfer in a slower rate as well as more time taken by the peripheral nervous system to process
information due to physical changes such as the damaging of tissues in the brain and the losing
of cells in the motor nerve which delays in sending information for action to be carried out or
take place.
Requirement:
 60 Volunteers with different ages.
 Stopwatch
Table of variable:
Types of variables
Independent variable
Method of justification
-
Justification
The age groups of
These are variables changed
people in years
after each trial, in this
experiment it’s the age group
since we are getting how age
affects reaction time which
shows that the experiment is
for multiple age groups to get
their reaction time
Dependent variable
-
The reaction time in
These are factors that hugely
milli seconds
depend on age, since the age
changes but reaction time
also changes but has a
correlation with age
Constant variable
-
The type of stopwatch
-
The Number of people same to avoid biased
-
-
These are factors kept the
in each age group (4
information, The type of
people)
stopwatch is kept the same,
Gender (Equal
since different stopwatches
number of male and
have different rate of delay.
female)
The number of people in each
The number of trials
age group and trials are kept
the same to keep it fair
Gender is an aspect that can
affect reaction time, so it’s
kept the same to only focus
on age
Design/set up:
Volunteer
Stopwatch
Procedure:
1. Firstly gather 60 people with their permission according to ascending age groups.
2. Then using a stopwatch, ask the volunteer to start and stop as fast as they can
3. Carry out at least 3 constant trials for each volunteer.
Results and table:
Calculation:
This is the calculation that was done to get the average reaction time in milli seconds, Here
below is a sample for the age group 10-11 years old. This calculation was the same for other
age groups.
Volunteer
Age in years
Trial reaction(ms)
1st
number
2nd
Total(ms) Average for
3rd
each person
(ms)
1
11
10
10
10
30
10
2
11
7
7
6
20
7
3
10
10
10
9
29
10
4
11
10
10
23
8
3
5
11
10
6
10
10
7
10
8
10
6
6
22
11
5
16
31
10
7
15
8
30
10
18
8
10
36
15
So, using the average for each, do the total average of 8people / 8 in this case
 81/ 8 = 10 milli seconds
Table of results
Age group/ Years
Average reaction time towards touch/milli
seconds (MS)
10-11
10
12-13
18
14-15
22
16-17
27
18-19
35
20 and above
37
Graph (Frequency: Since you are representing a range which is continuous data in this case)
Reaction time in milli seconds
Average reaction time towards touch/milli
seconds (MS)
40
35
37
18-19
20 and
above
27
30
18
20
22
10
10
0
10-11.
12-13.
14-15
16-17
Age groups in years
Discussion:
This is because older people tend to have slower functionalities and damaging of tissues in the
brain and spinal cord which may end up making neurons transmit information in a slower rate as
well as it could be due to increase in the viscosity of the axoplasm or the drop in the energy
available for sodium-potassium pump(Na+K+), As well as the change in the time taken for a
change chemical from nerve signals as age increases which makes neurons travel slowly for a
person to appeal to the sense of touch which match the result and graph. (Reference: Mr Nokwa,
Animed in youtube)
Conclusion:
The hypothesis is correct answer for the research question, as seen in the graph the older the
person the longer the time it will take for the person to react in milli seconds (MS) towards the sense of
touch, as seen in the graph, from ages 11-12 its average is 18 milli second, while from ages 13 to 14 its 24
milli seconds which shows that it has increased by 6, as we move on, from ages 15 to 16 its 30 milli
seconds and from ages 17to 18 its 34 milli seconds which continues to ages 19 to 20 which take 36 milli
seconds and finally from 21 and above take 50 milli seconds to on average to react at the sense of touch.
Evaluation:
Strength:
-
It took less time since more people were involved for aid in this experiment.
-
We measured a large sample size for the results to be relevant
Weakness:
-
Many weren’t telling their age
-
Didn’t take gender, both hands and physical and mental aspects into consideration
-
The stopwatch wasn’t constant
Risks:
-
If using a phone as a stopwatch, it might fall on your leg which might cause harm
-
If the person continuously presses the start/stop button hard for each trial, it might hurt the
person’s finger.
-
The stopwatch might be damaged if used with wet hands
-
The person might be ashamed to tell their age
Source of error:
-
Using different stopwatch.
-
We didn’t put the phone stopwatch on a flat surface for stability, to avoid continuous
stumbling.
-
We didn’t take into consideration the persons hand as it might be wet for the phone as a
stopwatch to start, since screens don’t act when water is above it.
-
We didn’t use equal number of gender and didn’t take into consideration the mental and
physical aspects
-
We didn’t get the reaction time for both hands and fingers
Improvements
-
We could use only one type of stopwatch, that is the lowest delayed.
-
We could get the reaction time for both hands and fingers as they both vary.
-
We should have used both equal amounts of men and women as they both vary.
-
We should make sure the mental and physical aspects, as using stimulants might increase
reaction time
Limitation
-
Many individuals could have nervous system disease such as:
*Parkinson’s since this is the continuous stumbling of the hand as it could affect the
experiment
*Down syndrome since this is when a person has intellectual delay which can affect
the response time of the brain
* There might be a possibility that their hand might have damaged nerves, nerve fiber
and nerve cells, so they can end up not being able to act
-
The person might be handicap or paralyzed with their hands
-
When the people from each age group start/stop the timer for at least 3 times as fast as they
can.
-
They might have used stimulants to increase reaction speed and awareness
Method suggestion: We could possibly drop a ruler at a constant height in meters and see how much time
in milli seconds it takes for the person to catch the ruler.
Peer review
Name
Signature
Scientific Glossary
-
Axoplasm: The cytoplasm of the nervous system
-
Neurons: These are information carrying cells for an action to be carried out
-
Soduim-pottasuim pump: This is an information processing element in the brain
-
Nerve fibers: A nerve fiber is a single nerve cell or a neuron
Reference:
-
cognifitcom for the definition of reaction time
-
Antimed for how the nervous system works
-
Mr Nokwa Lawson for the relation of ageing with reaction time
-
Science-out of the box
-
Rachana zubelik on Youtube
-
Freepik.com for the model