Reply to comment

In this lab we wanted to figure out whether our ability to see the stimulus affected the response time.

t1- time until muscle activity

t2- time until button is pressed

t3- t2 - t1 - time from muscle activity until button is pressed

Subject 1

Eyes closed

t1 = .111

t2 = .15

t3 = .039

Eyes Open

t1 = .048

t2 = .077

t3 = .029

Subject 2

Eyes Closed

t1 =  1.768

t2 = 1.83

t3 = .062

Eyes Open

t1 = .078

t2 = .122

t3 = .044

Subject 3

Eyes Closed

t1 = .097

t2 = .172

t3 = .075

Eyes Open

t1 = -.023

t2 = .049

t3 = .072

Conclusion

At the end of our experiment we realized that during the second trials, when our eyes were open, we had negative times. This was because when the person could see what was about to happen, there wasn't muscle activity, but the muscles were getting ready to move. Because of this the time between the stimulus and the time when the button was pressed was much shorter. We had predicted that this would happen, since being able to see what would happen, would mean that the person was anticipating, and would then react sooner, and maybe even prematurely.

The time between when there was any muscled activity and when the button was actually pressed was also much shorter during the second trials when our eyes were opened. We thought that this might mean that there was some sort of visual component. This would mean that somehow the message was related more quickly when it was done visually than when all we had to rely on was feeling the stimulus.

Maria, Mariah, Heather