Objective: The purpose of this study was to find out whether the simple reaction time was faster for auditory or visual stimulus and the factors responsible for improving the performance of the athlete. Methodology: 14 subjects were as- signed randomly into groups consisting of 2 members. Both the members from each group performed both the visual and auditory tests. The tests were taken from the DirectRT software program from a laptop. The DirectRT software consists of Testlabvisual and Testlabsounds to test the reaction times to visual and auditory stimuli. The 2 members from each group completed both the visual and auditory reaction times, the data was taken and the mean reaction time was calculated excluding the first and last values. Results: The results show that the mean visual reaction time is around 331 milliseconds as compared to the mean auditory reaction time of around 284 milliseconds. Conclusion: This shows that the auditory reaction time is faster than the visual reaction time. And also males have faster reaction times when compared to females for both auditory as well as visual stimuli.
Reaction time (RT) is the elapsed time between the presentation of a sensory stimulus and the subsequent behavioral response. Simple reaction time is usually defined as the time required for an observer to detect the presence of a stimulus. It is a physical skill closely related to human performance. It represents the level of neuromuscular coordination in which the body through different physical, chemical and mechanical processes decodes visual or auditory stimuli which travel via afferent pathways and reach the brain as sensory stimuli.
Simple reaction time can be determined when an individual is asked to press a button as soon as a light or sound appears.Research done by Pain & Hibbs, reference [
There are various factors that affect the reaction time to a stimulus. Factors like intensity and duration of the stimulus, age and gender of the participant, effect of practice can affect the reaction time of an individual to a particular stimulus. For example, there are relative differences between the reaction time to visual and auditory stimuli between genders. Male athletes tend to be faster than their female counterparts in responding to different stimuli. Researches done by Engel, reference [
The purpose of this study was to find out whether the simple reaction time was faster for auditory or visual stimulus and the factors responsible for improving the performance of the athlete.
14 subjects were randomly divided into groups consisting of 2 members. Both the members from each group performed both the visual and auditory tests. The tests were taken from the DirectRT software program in the laptop. The tests for visual reaction time were taken from the ‘testlabvisual’ file in the DirectRT program. Before starting the test, the subjects were asked to give individual file numbers under the ‘enter codes’ menu, in order to access the data after the test. In the testlabvisual test, the subjects were asked to press the ‘space bar’ key, every time they saw a yellow box on the screen. Once the test was completed, the data was taken from the output file, the mean reaction time was calculated excluding the first and last values. After both the subjects from each group completed the visual test, they undertook the auditory reaction test. This was taken from the ‘testlabsounds’ file in the DirectRT program. In the testlabsounds test, the subjects were asked to press the ‘spacebar’ key, every time they heard a ‘beep’ sound. Once the test was completed, the data was taken from the output file, the mean reaction time was calculated excluding the first and last values. After both the members of a group completed the visual and auditory tests, the mean reaction time data for both the visual and auditory tests were entered in the laptop.
The results show that the auditory reaction time is faster than the visual reaction time. And also males have faster reaction times when compared to females for both auditory as well as visual stimuli.
As the result shows, in
and Thompson et al., reference [
Reaction time is dependent on several factors like arrival of the stimulus at the sensory organ, conversion of the stimulus by the sensory organ to a neural signal, neural transmissions and processing, muscular activation, soft tissue compliance, and the selection of an external measurement parameter (Pain & Hibbs, reference [
Reaction times are widely used to evaluate neuromuscular-physiological responses in sports. Studies by Pain & Hibbs, reference [
In this study, as seen in
could be that it takes the same time for both the auditory and visual stimuli to reach the cortex but the time taken for the corresponding motor response and muscle contraction might differ. This was documented in the study done by Silverman, reference [
From the above study it can be concluded that simple reaction time is faster for auditory stimuli compared to visual stimuli. Auditory stimuli has
• The fastest conduction time to the motor cortex.
• Fast processing time in the auditory cortex.
• Therefore faster reaction time and quick muscle contraction.
• And on the whole improves the performance of the athlete.
As exercise physiologists, our main aim is to improve the speed, skill and performance of the athlete. The above evidences suggest that speed and performance of an activity can be improved with faster reaction time to a stimulus. From the above findings of the study, faster reaction times can be achieved by providing repeated auditory stimuli and with adequate periods of rest between the stimuli.
A performance enhancing program can look like this:
- Exposure to adequate auditory stimuli;
- Repeated exposure to stimuli during practice;
- Adequate periods of rest between practices.