Nervous System: Reaction Time

Teacher Version
Preparation and Lab Notes:
To set up the computer-based reaction timer:
1. Unzip the archive rxntimer.app.zip
2. Open up a terminal window and go into the rxntimelab directory.
3. Type “python rxntimer.py”
4. Make sure the volume is turned up on the computer

Prerequisites:
Student Version: Students are expected to use a calculator to take averages and square roots.
Student Advanced Version: Students are expected to know how to take averages and square
roots and to use the formula distance = rate * time. One question in Part 3 requires
knowledge of basic trigonometry. The advanced version includes more concept
questions, some of which can be answered with names of specific nerves and muscles
(eg: “optic nerve”) by those studying anatomy, or can be answered more generically (eg:
“nerve connecting your eyes and your brain”) by others.

California Science Content Standards:

• 9. Physiology: As a result of the coordinated structures and functions of organ
systems, the internal environment of the human body remains relatively stable
(homeostatic) despite changes in the outside environment.
• 9b. Students know how the nervous system mediates communication between different
parts of the body and the body's interactions with the environment.
• **9c. Students know how feedback loops in the nervous system [and endocrine]
system(s) regulate conditions in the body.
• **9d. Students know the functions of the nervous system and the role of neurons in
transmitting electrochemical impulses.
• **9e. Students know the roles of sensory neurons, interneurons, and motor neurons in
sensation, thought, and response.

Materials:
• 1 meter stick for every 2 students (or fewer if they work in larger groups)
• Calculators (or the calculating function on students’ cellular phones)
• Computers (running MacOS or Linux), with python installed and a working mouse
• Headphones recommended if using more than one computer at a time
• Penlight or small flashlight (1 or 2)
• Place where students can sit so that their legs dangle freely
• Piece of cardboard

Created by LABScI at Stanford 1

Key Concepts:
• Your nervous system allows your body to react to different stimuli (external events)
• Reactions can be voluntary (eg: swinging a bat at a ball flying at you) or involuntary (eg:
blinking at a puff of air)
• A reflex is a rapid, automatic response to a stimulus
o examples: shivering if the temperature is too cold; moving your hand if it gets too
close to a hot surface.
• Reflexes require at least two neurons, or nerve cells, to function. Sensory neurons take in
information (input) from the outside world, whereas motor neurons give information
(output) to muscles and joints.
• Some reflexes are processed in the brain, while others are processed in the spinal cord
• The 5 steps of a typical reflex arc are:
a. Arrival of stimulus and activation of a receptor
b. Activation of sensory neuron
c. Information processing by interneuron
d. Activation of a motor neuron
e. Response by an effector (the muscle that carries out the response)

Introduction:
Suppose a ball is thrown toward your head. You may react by catching the ball, by
ducking, or by blinking and turning your head. In each case, you must sense the arrival of a
signal (i.e. the sight of the ball flying towards you), process this information and react to it. In
this lab, you will explore how your nervous system allows you to react to signals from the world
around you. You will measure your reaction times to various visual and auditory stimuli and
observe the effects of several variables on these reaction times. You will also elicit and observe
some innate reflexes.
The lab consists of three stations, to be done in order. In the Ruler Station, you measure
your reaction time by catching a falling ruler. In the Computer Station, you will use an
application that tracks your reaction time to visual and auditory stimuli. In the Reflex Station,
you will observe a couple of innate reflexes that are often used for diagnostic purposes. Each
section contains questions for discussion.

Part 1 – Ruler Station

Materials:
• Metric ruler, calculator

Holding your thumb and index finger about 4 cm apart, catch the ruler when your partner drops
it.
Do 5 practice runs without recording the results.
Now record the results for 3 more trials of the experiment.
Repeat the experiment holding your fingers 10 cm apart. Record your results in the chart below.

Repeat the experiment saying every other letter of the alphabet while waiting for the ruler to
drop. Record your results.

Created by LABScI at Stanford 2

 4 cm 10 cm Alphabet (4 cm) Key Word (4 cm)
Trial 1 cm cm cm cm
Trial 2 cm cm cm cm
Trial 3 cm cm cm cm
Average length cm cm cm cm
Reaction time sec sec sec sec

To calculate the average length, use the formula length = (trial 1 + trial 2 + trial 3)  3
To calculate the reaction time, use the formula: time = length / 490
(Note: this formula takes length in units of cm and gives time in units of seconds)
(non-graphing calculator buttons: length, , 490, )
Typical reaction times for the ruler experiment should be on the order of 0.2 sec.

Q1. Is there a difference in the calculated reaction time between the 4 cm and 10 cm inch trials?
Which one seems to be faster? What could you learn from a series of experiments where the
subjects’ fingers start at different separations?
The reaction times will generally be slightly longer with the fingers starting 10cm rather
than 4cm apart since it takes longer to move them by that distance. By doing a series of such
experiments, you could get an estimate of the time required to react to the stimulus versus
the time required to actually move the fingers together once the signal to grasp has been
received.

Q2. Did your reaction time increase or decrease while you were saying the alphabet? Explain
why you think this happens.

Reaction should increase slightly due to the distraction.

Now repeat the experiment with the following twist: only catch the ruler when your partner says
the key word “monkey”. Be sure to say the word before dropping the ruler. Your partner should
try to trick you by occasionally dropping the ruler while saying other, incorrect, words. (For
instance, if the experimenter says “banana” and then drops the ruler, don’t catch it!). Keep trying
until you catch the ruler 3 times in a row on the correct word WITHOUT any mistaken catches
on the wrong word. Record the length at which the ruler was caught for those three times.

Q3. Did your reaction time increase or decrease? Explain why.

In this case, the reaction time includes not only the time required to process the auditory
and visual stimuli, but the decision if it is correct or not (recognition time). Thus, the overall
reaction will be slower.

Created by LABScI at Stanford 3

Ruler station Concept Questions:
QSA4. Consider the 5 steps of a reflex arc (see “Key Concepts”). What are the components of
the neural system involved in each of the 5 steps for the specific case of the subject catching
the ruler?

(a.) visual stimulus activates photoreceptors (b.) the sensory optic nerve is activated (c.)
information is processed in the midbrain (d.) the median nerve (a motor neuron) carries the
signal to the hand (e.) muscles in the hand cause the fingertips to come together

QSA5. You answered several questions asking if there was a difference between two runs of the
experiment. Of course, no two measurements will ever come out identically the same.
Explain how you would determine whether the difference between two runs of the
experiment is significant (meaningful) or not?

In addition to the average reaction times, one should also get a measure of how much the
times vary: the standard deviation. If the difference between the reaction times in two runs
of the experiment is greater than a standard deviation or so then this is most likely due to a
real underlying difference in the reaction times rather than just variability in the
experiment.

Part 2 – Computer Station

Materials:
• Computer with functional speakers and a mouse
• Headphones for each computer, if multiple computers are used

The reaction timer should already be open on your laptop. Ask your teacher if you can’t see it.

Visual: Click on the “Visual” button near the top of the window. You should see two gray
circles and a button labeled “Start” to the right of them. Click on the Start button. The top circle
will turn red and the timer will wait for a few seconds. As soon as you see the red light on top
switch to a green light on the bottom, click and release the button (now labeled “End”). The
timer will record your reaction time in the table to the left. If you click the End button before the
light turns green, that test will not count. If you want to erase the last recorded time, click on the
Undo button at the bottom. Do a few practice runs first. Then record the average of 5 trials.

Visual Auditory: loud Auditory: soft Decision

Average: sec sec sec sec

Created by LABScI at Stanford 4

QS4, QSA6. How does your reaction time, as measured in this experiment, compare with the
reaction times calculated in the first part of the ruler-drop section? Are they close? Why
might there be differences?

The reaction times should be similar for both the computer and the ruler drop experiment.
Differences could be due to the different movements required to actually respond to the
stimuli (ie: pressing and releasing the mouse button vs bringing fingers together to catch the
ruler). Ruler-catching times might also be slightly shortened if the subject can see when the
experimenter is about to drop the ruler.

Auditory: Now click on the button labeled “Auditory” to record your reaction time to an
auditory stimulus. Again, click on the Start button to start the test. The light will turn red, the
computer will wait a few seconds and then produce a beep. If you do not hear a beep for more
than 10 seconds, make sure that the volume on the computer is turned up. As soon as you hear
the beep, click on the big button again and your reaction time will be recorded. Record your
results in the chart above.

Run the auditory test first with the volume turned up to produce a loud beep, then with the
volume turned down for a softer (but still audible beep).

QS5, QSA7. Was there a difference between your average reaction time for the visual and the
auditory stimuli?

Auditory reaction times, at least for loud stimuli, tend to be slightly shorter than visual ones.
This is not the case for quieter stimuli, however.

QS6, QSA8. Did you notice a difference in your reaction times for loud versus soft stimuli? Why
do you think a louder beep might lead to shorter (or longer) times?

A louder beep should shorten the reaction time. Your ear integrates the sound waves over a
period of time up to 0.1 sec. A louder beep requires a shorter amount of time to reach the
minimal overall level of stimulus necessary to trigger a reaction.

Decision: Now click on the button labeled “Decision”. Click the Start button to run the test.
After a short pause, a picture will appear on the screen. Click the End button only if it is a picture
of a cat. If the picture does not show a cat, it will disappear on its own in 2 seconds, or you can
click on the Clear button to reset the test. Repeat until you measure 5 reaction times where you
correctly clicked on the cat pictures only. You must click on the Start button each time,
regardless of whether the picture showed a cat!

QS7, QSA9. Which ruler drop experiment do you expect to yield similar times to the ones
obtained here? Why are the two experiments analogous? Are the times, in fact, similar?
In this experiment, you have to process a stimulus and recognize whether or not it is the
right one before responding to it, so this is comparable to the last section of the ruler drop
experiment. There are many possible explanations for any differences however, including
the fact that an auditory recognition stimulus was involved in the ruler experiment, whereas
everything on the computer is visual.

Created by LABScI at Stanford 5

Computer station Concept Questions:
QSA10. Consider again the 5 steps of a reflex arc.
(a) Which component(s) changed between the first ruler-drop experiment and the first
experiment in this section?
The precise effector muscles, the finer motor neurons that direct exactly how your
fingers move

(b) Which component(s) changed between the “visual” and “auditory” trials in this
section?

The sensory receptors, and sensory nerve

(c) Which component(s) changed between the “visual” and “decision” trials in this
section?

The neurons involved in processing the information

QSA11. (a) Use the data obtained in this experiment (or in the ruler station) to make a rough
estimate of the average rate of signal propagation in your nervous system

A signal has to go from the screen to your eye (or ear), be processed in your brain, and
then travel to your fingertips to press the mouse button. The overall distance that the
neural impulses must cover is on the order of 1 m. This takes approximately 0.2 sec (or
whatever times were measured).
Time = distance / rate
So the average rate of signal propagation is about 5 m/s.

(b) This rate is an average over several physiological events. List some of these.
(Note: this question is for students with some knowledge of the nervous system,
though it can be answered in more generality by others)
This rate includes: response of the sensory cell (rods/cones in eye or hair cells in ear)
to the stimulus, transmission of signal across synapses between neurons, transmission
of the action potential along a single neuron, and contraction of finger muscles in
response to the signal.

QSA12. Come up with another variable in the presented stimulus (eg: color of the dot, duration
of the beep, etc.) that you think would influence the reaction times, and explain why you
think the reaction times would differ? Would you expect the times to get longer or shorter
using the modified stimulus you're proposing?

At low volume, having the beep last longer may lead to shorter reaction times due to the
time- integration of the auditory stimulus. Similarly, since the human ear has different
sensitivity to different frequencies, changing the frequency of the beep while keeping the
volume constant should also affect the reaction time (whether it increases or decreases
depends on how close the frequency is to the optimal frequency for human ears). There
are many other possible answers here.

Created by LABScI at Stanford 6

 Part 3 - Reflex Station
Materials:
• Penlight or small flashlight
• Meter stick
• Someplace to sit where legs can dangle freely

Work in teams of 3 – the subject, the experimenter, and the data recorder.
The subject should sit on a desk or someplace where his/her legs can dangle
freely. The experimenter should try to elicit the patellar reflex (also known
as the knee-jerk reflex). This reflex is processed in your spinal cord and
not in your brain! Using the side of your hand, tap one of the subject's legs
just below the kneecap. You should not need to hit very hard! By looking
straight down at the ruler, the data recorder should measure the horizontal distance that the foot
travels relative to the height at the bottom. Trade roles so that all of you have a chance to be the
subject.

Trial 1 Trial 2 Trial 3

Distance of kick cm cm cm
Angle of kick

QSA13. Work out a formula for determining the angle of the kick given the height that you
measured (if you haven't done trigonometry, ask the teacher or an older student for help).
Why might the angle rather than the height be a more useful measurement of the magnitude
of the response?

The formula is sin(angle) = (measured distance of kick) / (length of leg). The angle is a
more useful measurement because it does not depend on the length of the leg. Tall and short
people with the same reaction will kick to a similar angle but the length will be longer for
the taller person.

QS8, QSA14. Is this a voluntary or involuntary reaction? Are you able to stop yourself from
kicking your leg?
This is an involuntary reflex.

QS9, QSA15. What are some variables that might affect the magnitude (how high you kick) of the
observed response?

Some possibilities are: being distracted, sleepy, or excited, age, how tired you are

Created by LABScI at Stanford 7

Direct / consensual pupillary reflex: If possible, dim the lights in the room. Hold a piece of
cardboard at your nose, separating your left and right eye. The experimenter should briefly shine
the penlight in the your left eye (5-10 cm away from the eye) and observe the size of the pupil in
the left eye. Wait a little while for the pupil to readjust and repeat the experiment, this time
shining a light in the left eye while observing the right.

QS10, QSA16. What happened to the pupil in each eye when you shone the light in the left eye?
Is this a voluntary or involuntary reaction?

Both pupils should dilate in response to light. This is also an involuntary reflex.

Concept Questions
QS11, QA17. (a) What is the role of the pupillary light reflex? Why is it important to us?

This reflex regulates the total amount of light hitting our photoreceptors. It helps protect
against overexposure of the receptors and also to maintain visual sensitivity at a larger
range of background light levels.

(b) Can you think of a useful role for the knee jerk reflex?

This reflex can help maintain posture and balance. When the quadriceps is stretched, the
brain responds by contracting it and relaxing the opposing muscle (the hamstring) to
restore balance.

QS12, QA18. Why do we need to have innate reflexes at all? Why do we need involuntary
reflexes? Wouldn't we be better off being able to control everything that our body does?

Innate reflexes allow your body to perform basic survival functions (blinking, breathing,
etc.) without conscious thought, so that attention can be focused on other things.
Involuntary reflexes can also be faster than voluntary ones since the signal doesn't have to
go through processing centers in the brain (eg: the knee-jerk reflex only goes through the
spinal cord).

QS13, QA19. Why do doctors measure reflexes during a diagnostic exam? What information can
they get out of these measurements? Why is the knee-jerk reflex particularly useful for
diagnosing the location of a problem in your nervous system?

Doctors measure reflexes to pinpoint the location of any damage to the nervous system.
Loss of the knee-jerk reflex indicates damage to the femoral nerve and/or spinal nerves.
Loss of either the direct or consensual pupillary light reflex can indicate damage in the
optic nerve or the oculomotor nerve of one side (depending whether both the direct and the
consensual response are gone). The knee-jerk reflex specifically is useful for determining
whether the problem is in the brain or in the spinal chord or peripheral nervous system.

Created by LABScI at Stanford 8

QS14, QA20. Based on data you measured in this lab, why is it a bad idea to talk on your cell-
phone while driving?

We measured that reaction time increases when you are distracted. You will not be able to
respond as quickly to sudden changes on the road.

QS15, QA21. The distance from the pitcher to the batter in a baseball game is about 60 feet. A
fast-ball travels at approximately 147 feet per second (this is about 100 mph).
How long (in seconds) does it take the ball to reach the batter after it is thrown?
(use the formula: time = distance divided by speed)

60/147 = 0.4 seconds

QS16, QA22. Suppose an insane pitcher decided to pitch a cat at you instead of a baseball. If
you had your eyes closed until the instant when the pitcher let go, would you have time to
react before the cat hit you in the face (compare to data you measured in this lab)?

The reaction times in the experiment where you had to determine whether a picture showed
a cat were probably slightly greater than 0.4 seconds. So, unless you could see the pitcher
throwing it before he let go, you wouldn’t be able to notice the cat fast enough to react to
it.

QS17, QA23. Based on data you measured in this lab, do you have enough time after the ball
leaves the pitcher’s hand to decide how the ball will fly and to aim for it? How do you think
good baseball players manage to actually hit the ball?

Again, since judging the ball trajectory and aiming for it requires making decisions, you
probably don’t have time to respond after the ball leaves the pitcher’s hand. However,
good baseball players tend to judge how the ball will fly while the pitcher is throwing it,
thereby buying themselves extra time. Also, reaction times can be brought down with
practice, and professional sports players tend to have pretty fast reactions.

Created by LABScI at Stanford 9