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ekim's picture

on stimuli & response.

Vivian Cruz, Saskia Guerrier, Eurie Kim

Hypothesis
Distance affects response time: the farther away the stimuli, the slower the response.

Observations
Vivian

T1 T2 T3 ND MD RT    
1.52 1.588 1.645 0.068 0.057 0.125 same-side arm
               
10.696 11.055 11.114 0.359 0.059 0.418 same-side stomach
               
15.508 15.658 15.766 0.15 0.108 0.258 same-side thigh
               
10.696 10.739 10.815 0.043 0.076 0.119 other-side arm
               
9.592 9.672 9.739 0.08 0.067 0.147 other-side stomach
               
8.651 8.761 8.841 0.11 0.08 0.19 other-side thigh

Saskia

T1 T2 T3 ND MD RT    
8.886 9.06 9.131 0.174 0.071 0.245 same-side arm
               
5.936 5.991 6.063 0.055 0.072 0.127 same-side stomach
               
4.095 4.191 4.257 0.096 0.066 0.162 same-side thigh
               
10.478 10.565 10.656 0.087 0.091 0.178 other-side arm
               
12.102 12.387 12.483 0.285 0.096 0.381 other-side stomach
               
12.125 12.318 12.449 0.193 0.131 0.324 other-side thigh


Our story
There seems to be no correlation between the distance of the stimuli and the response time (nor in neural delay, nor in muscle delay).
However, we did discover that the neural delay times correspond to the response times because the neural (neurons being transmitted to the brain and back) process directly affects the physical reaction of the person.
Therefore, the faster the neural process, the faster the reaction.
The muscle delay did not correspond to the speeds of neural delays nor response times. Since muscle delay reflects the muscle movement, any muscle movement could have been picked up in the process of the person's thumb pressing the button (for instance, one could've just moved the thumb one time, but the next time one may have moved her wrist and thumb).
Thus, there is no correlation in distance of stimuli versus response time because regardless of where the stimuli is, the person will respond, BUT that response time will depend on CONCENTRATION more than distance.

This could mean that response and reflex is fundamentally different because response is controlled depending on one's concentration, while reflex is more an automatic response.

So what does the automatic-ness of one's reflex depend on?

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