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Crystal and Eri

Our initial hypothesis is that the more physically distracted a subject is, the more variability and larger standard deviation there is in the results.

Observations:

We decided to play tetris on a cell phone with their non-dominant hand while doing the reaction time experiment on the computer in order to see how doing two separate things at once will affect the reaction times.

Crystal:

Case 1: 318; SD: 61 (N/A)

Case 2: 323; SD: 30 (N/A)

Case 3: 616; SD: 211 (Mistakes: 4)

Case 4: 787; SD: 487 (Mistakes: 2)

Eri:

Case 1: 567; SD: 159 (Mistakes: 1)

Case 2: 655; SD: 321 (Mistakes: 1)

Case 3: 734; SD: 234 (Mistakes: 3)

Case 4: 847; SD: 760 (Mistakes: 3)

Through our numerous trials, we have found that attempting to sustain two different thought processes will cause the physical reactions related to each to suffer. In comparison to our initial data, there was a larger standard deviation (with one outlying exception) and more mistakes were made, therefore our initial hypothesis was correct.

Even though it may seem like Case 4 should be more complex than Case 3, we found that since Case 4 had a more consistent trigger word of "don't" while Case 3 had more variation in commanding actions. (Ex: "Hit the Button" or "Do Press Now"). When looking at the difference in mistakes made from Case 3 to 4, we can see in Crystal's case that there were 2 more mistakes in the experiment and there was a larger variation in phrases used.

In conclusion, we have found that the more the distractions, the larger variability and standard deviation of the reaction times.