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Reaction Time Data Sheet

This document describes an activity to test and compare reaction times between dominant and non-dominant hands. Participants will drop a ruler and have a partner catch it as quickly as possible with both hands, recording the distance fallen to calculate reaction time. They will perform trials with both hands and average the results, then share class data to analyze whether dominant or non-dominant hands have faster reaction times on average.

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danicacasaclang5
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147 views4 pages

Reaction Time Data Sheet

This document describes an activity to test and compare reaction times between dominant and non-dominant hands. Participants will drop a ruler and have a partner catch it as quickly as possible with both hands, recording the distance fallen to calculate reaction time. They will perform trials with both hands and average the results, then share class data to analyze whether dominant or non-dominant hands have faster reaction times on average.

Uploaded by

danicacasaclang5
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Reaction Time Activity

How Fast Are You?


When I was a child, every time I reached for a pencil with my left
hand, the teacher hit me with her pointer stick. She wanted to make
sure we all used our right hand for writing. But not everybody is
right-handed. About 10 – 15 percent of humans are affectionately
called southpaws, including both my mother and my son. Needless
to say, I got pretty good at moving my hand out of the way of that
pointer stick. Now, I wonder if she had tried hitting me on the right
hand would I have had more or fewer bruised knuckles. Let’s find
out.

General Procedure:

1. In the space provided, write a hypothesis for what you think we will find out by
comparing the reaction times of dominant and non-dominant hands.
2. Hold the ruler near the end and let it hang down.
3. Have another person put his or her hand at the bottom of the ruler and have them ready
to grab the ruler. They should not be touching the ruler
4. Tell the other person that you will drop the ruler sometime within the next 5 seconds and
that they are supposed to catch the ruler as fast as they can after it is dropped.
5. Record the distance in centimeters the rulers travels before being caught.
6. Use the formula below to convert the distance to reaction time (in miliseconds).
7. Collect at least five trials using your dominant hand and five trials using your non-
dominant hand.
8. Calculate your average for both dominant and non-dominant and write your averages on
the board.
9. Calculate a class average and record it on your data sheet.
10. Use your data to answer the analysis questions.

t = time (in seconds)


y = distance (in cm)
g = 980 cm/sec2 (acceleration
due to gravity).
Note: 1 second = 1,000 msec
Data Table

Individual Trials
Dominant Hand Non-Dominant Hand
Trial Distance Reaction Trial Distance Reaction
Time Time
1 1
2 2
3 3
4 4
5 5
Average Average

Class Data

Average
Questions

1. Did your individual data support your hypothesis? Explain.

2. Did the class data support your hypothesis? Explain.

3. What was the independent variable in this experiment?

4. What was the dependent variable in this experiment?

5. What variables did we control in this experiment?

6. Aside from hand-dominance, what other factors about


reaction time could we test?

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