Reasonable Distractions On Reaction Time Essay
The Effect of Distractions on Reaction Time
Purpose: The purpose of this laboratory is to calculate your reaction times and design a procedure to evaluate the effect of reasonable distraction on reaction times.
Introduction:
Distractions are a part of everyday life, but they can become fatal while driving a car. A distraction can be defined as a something that renders a person incapable of behaving or reacting in a normal matter. Such distractions include the use of a cell phone, talking to other people, and listening to music. The National Safety Council and the American Automobile Association estimate that 23% of all car accidents are linked to distracted driving, that’s an estimated 1.3 million car crashes each year …show more content…
related to distracted driving. According to the same statistic of those car crashes, 3331 people died and 387,000 people were seriously injured. Although the cell phone seems to be the number one cause of distracted driving due to its world spread usage, but to fully understand distracted driving testing the effects of listening to music and conversing with other people will be needed. These factors will be tested through immediate reaction time, in order to simulate brake responses while driving a car. Contrary to popular belief braking response is a complex reaction which involves mental processing time, movement time, and vehicle response time. Movement time refers to the required time muscles respond to the action potential sent from the brain, mental processing refers to perception, situational awareness, and sensation. Finally vehicle response time refers to the time it takes the vehicle to respond to the brake signal given by the operator to stop the vehicle . This will be tested through a series of experiments by measuring the time it will take the participant to react to the action while being distracted, and the results will likely show that with the distractions that reaction time will increase.
The first factor that is being tested in this experiment is how music effects reaction time. Since music is involved with passive listening, this will effect the auditory cortex located at the upper side of the temporal lobe which processes auditory inputs. With more stimulation in the auditory cortex this will result in decrease in neural activity in the parietal lobe which is needed to complete driving tasks. As a result reaction time is increased, and therefore increased probability for an accident while driving.
The second factor that will be tested is how texting effects response time. Texting and driving accounts for 30% of all distracted driving incidents and increases the probability of a car collision by 400% according to the National Safety Council. Unlike listening to music, texting will require the driver to only have on hand on the wheel, while the other preforms the task. This will be emulated in this lab by having the participants preforming a task in one hand while the other preforms another in order to mirror a situation were a driver would be texting while driving.
Materials:
Meter Stick
Text Book
Laptop
Desktop Computer
Headphones
2 Desks
Internet access
Mouse
Blackberry
Chair
Eraser
20 Male participants
20 Female participant
Lead holder
2 thirty cm rulers
2 pencils
Miniature stapler
Paper
Pen
Procedure:
Meter Stick Drop
1. Create a 10 second heart beat sound effect with thunder storm sound effect in the background.
2. Repeat step one 3 times except create one owl sound effect, a metronome sound effect, and lastly a water dripping sound effect, all having a thunder sound effect in the background.
3. Place 2 pencils, 2 thirty cm rulers, a eraser, and a lead holder under the desk.
4. Have a another desk placed opposite of the other desk with a text book, paper and pen laid on top of it
5. Instruct the participant to sit on the chair between the two desks having the dominant arm rest on the desk with an empty top and their hand hanging over the opposite side of the desk.
6. Instruct the participant to make cup their hand.
7. Hold the meter stick at the 30 cm end and place the 0 cm end of the meter stick in between the pointer finger and thumb of the participant.
8. Drop the ruler randomly straight down, between 0 to 10 seconds.
9. Once the participant has caught the ruler, record the measurement along the top of the thumb.
10. Repeat steps 5 – 9, and have the participant wear the headphones, and listen and count the number of heart beat sounds there are in the sound effect.
11. Repeat step 14 three times, once counting the owl sound effect, the second counting the metronome sound effect and finally counting the water drips.
12. Repeat steps 5 – 9, and have the participant text their first name on the blackberry with their non-dominant hand
13. Repeat steps 5 – 9, and have the participant use their non-dominant hand to flip pages from the text book and count them.
14. Repeat steps 5 – 9, and have the participant write their last name with their non dominant hand on the piece of paper.
15. Repeat steps 5 – 9, and have the participant with their non-dominant hand pick out the lead holder from inside the desk.
16. Complete steps 5-9, 10 - 11, and 12 - 15 in the following order:
D1
UD
D2
UD
D2
D1
D2
UD
D1
UD
D2
D1
Steps 5 – 9 = UD (Undistracted) ; steps 10 – 11= D1 (Distraction #1) ; steps 12 – 15 = D2 (Distraction #2)
17. Repeat steps 3 – 16 19 more times, making sure that there are 10 males and 10 females participants tested..
18. Clean up all materials.
Sleep Sheep
1. Create a 10 minuet heart beat sound effect with thunder storm sound effect in the background.
2. Have a desk with a laptop laid on top of it.
3. Turn on the laptop and access the internet browser.
4. In the address bar type http://www.bbc.co.uk/science/humanbody/sleep/sheep/ to access the sleep sheep program.
5. Have a another desk placed opposite of the other desk with paper and pen laid on top of it.
6. Seat the participant in front of the laptop.
7. The participant will play the sleep sheep game undistracted.
8. Record the time mean given by the game.
9. The participant will then play the sleep sheep game, but will write their name over and over again until the game has been completed.
10. Record the mean given by the game.
11. The participant will then put on the headphones, and listen and count the number of heart beats in the sound effect.
12. Record the time mean given by the game.
13. Repeat steps 6 – 11 19 more times, making sure that there are 10 males and 10 females participants tested.
Note: Redo any tests where the sheep has been missed and 3.0 seconds is assigned
14. Clean up all materials.
Observations:
(Refer to appendix for original data)
The Effect of Auditory and Movement Distractions on Mean Reaction Time on Females with Ruler Drop Experiment (Table #1)
Participant
Undistracted
Distraction #1
Distraction #2
Mean Length of Drop (cm)
Time of Length Drop (Seconds)
Mean Length of Drop (cm)
Time of Length Drop (Seconds)
Mean Length of Drop (cm)
Time of Length Drop (Seconds)
1
17.00
0.186
21.50
0.209
26.00
0.230
2
16.00
0.181
21.75
0.211
23.00
0.217
3
16.50
0.183
28.50
0.241
30.50
0.249
4
13.50
0.166
25.25
0.227
31.00
0.252
5
19.50
0.199
23.25
0.218
38.00
0.278
6
23.00
0.163
29.50
0.245
35.50
0.269
7
15.50
0.178
24.50
0.224
37.25
0.276
8
18.25
0.193
26.75
0.234
31.25
0.253
9
16.50
0.183
27.50
0.237
31.25
0.253
10
16.00
0.181
21.00
0.207
30.75
0.251
Total Mean
17.31
0.181
24.66
0.225
31.45
0.250
The Effect of Auditory and Movement Distractions on Mean Reaction Time on Males with Ruler Drop Experiment (Table #2)
Participant
Undistracted
Distraction #1
Distraction #2
Mean Length of Drop (cm)
Time of Length Drop (Seconds)
Mean Length of Drop (cm)
Time of Length Drop (Seconds)
Mean Length of Drop (cm)
Time of Length Drop (Seconds)
1
12.00
0.156
21.75
0.210
30.75
0.251
2
14.50
0.172
33.50
0.261
24.25
0.222
3
14.25
0.171
14.50
0.172
36.25
0.272
4
16.25
0.182
20.25
0.203
26.75
0.234
5
15.25
0.176
24.00
0.221
29.00
0.243
6
14.75
0.173
24.00
0.221
28.75
0.242
7
16.25
0.182
22.50
0.214
29.50
0.245
8
18.25
0.193
29.00
0.243
25.25
0.227
9
15.50
0.177
27.50
0.237
33.75
0.262
10
15.50
0.177
23.00
0.217
33.50
0.261
Total Mean
15.25
0.176
23.80
0.220
29.78
0.246
The Effect of Auditory and Movement Distractions on Percent Change of Reaction Time on Males vs.
Females with Ruler Drop Experiment (Table #3)
Percent Change (%)
Gender
Total Time Mean Undistracted – Total Time Mean Distraction #1(Auditory)
Total Time Mean Undistracted – Total Time Mean Distraction #2 (Movement)
Male
25.00
39.77
Female
24.31
39.68
The Effect of Auditory and Movement Distractions on Mean Reaction Time on Females with Sleep Sheep Experiment (Table #4)
Participant
Undistracted
Distracted #1
Distracted #2
Time
(Seconds)
Mean Time (Seconds)
Time
(Seconds)
Mean Time (Seconds)
Time
(Seconds)
Mean Time (Seconds)
1
0.3190
0.3178
0.3320
0.3826
0.3901
0.4026
2
0.3013
0.3792
0.4784
3
0.3325
0.3358
0.3979
4
0.2951
0.4015
0.4743
5
0.3267
0.4151
0.3916
6
0.3291
0.4013
0.3977
7
0.3141
0.4422
0.3980
8
0.3486
0.3674
0.2748
9
0.2801
0.2711
0.4102
10
0.2963
0.4501
0.4131
The Effect of Auditory and Movement Distractions on Mean Reaction Time on Males with Sleep Sheep Experiment (Table #5)
Participant
Undistracted
Distraction #1 (Auditory)
Distraction #2
(Movement)
Time
(Seconds)
Mean Time (Seconds)
Time
(Seconds)
Mean Time (Seconds)
Time
(Seconds)
Mean Time (Seconds)
1
0.2954
0.3022
0.3431
0.3751
0.3877
0.4353
2
0.3879
0.0000
0.3717
0.0000
0.4920
0.0000
3
0.2976
0.0000
0.4146
0.0000
0.5040
0.0000
4
0.2945
0.0000
0.3891
0.0000
0.3967
0.0000
5
0.3765
0.0000
0.2907
0.0000
0.4250
0.0000
6
0.3345
0.0000
0.3661
0.0000
0.4655
0.0000
7
0.2834
0.0000
0.3908
0.0000
0.3547
0.0000
8
0.3136
0.0000
0.3917
0.0000
0.5015
0.0000
9
0.2470
0.0000
0.3919
0.0000
0.4348
0.0000
10
0.1913
0.0000
0.4000
0.0000
0.3910
0.0000
The Effect of Auditory and Movement Distractions on Percent Change of Reaction Time on Males vs. Females with Sleep Sheep Experiment (Table #6)
Percent Change (%)
Gender
Total Time Mean Undistracted – Total Time Mean Distraction #1 (Auditory)
Total Time Mean Undistracted – Total Time Mean Distraction #2 (Movement)
Male
24.15
44.06
Female
20.39
26.68
Total Mean Reaction Times of Ruler Drop Experiment vs. Sleep Sheep Experiment (Table #7)
Type of Experiment
Mean Times (Seconds)
Total Mean Reaction Time (Seconds)
Undistracted
Distraction #1
Distraction #2
Ruler Drop
0.1785
0.2225
0.2480
0.2163
Sleep Sheep
0.3100
0.3789
0.4190
0.3693
Mean
0.2443
0.3007
0.3335
0.2928
Sample Calculations:
Mean Time= √(2*mean length of drop/980) - √(2*17cm/980cm) = 0.186 cm
Mean Length of Drop = UD1 + UD2 + UD3 + UD4/4 – 15cm + 20cm + 21cm + 12cm/4 = 17.0cm
Percent Change = [(Mean Distraction 2 - Mean Undistracted Time)/Mean Undistracted Time)] *100
- [(0.4535 – 0.3022)/0.3022)] *100 = 44.06%
Analysis:
Explanation of Value of Distraction
Distraction 1 was used as a auditory distraction to simulate the effects of listening to music and conversing on cell phone while driving a vehicle. This was mirrored in this experiment by instructing the participant to listen to the sound effect and count the number of repetitions in it while catching a ruler or playing the sleep sheep game. A special sound effect was included in the background in order to create the musical element to the experiment, making it more effective and realistic. Although listening to music and talking on a cellphone (as long as its hands free), while driving is still legal in all 10 provinces, they do have effects on reaction time. According to a survey run by News-Medical, teens were 20% more likely to get into a car accident while listening to music or conversing on a cellphone. The repeated sound effect was changed each trial to ensure that the test did not become redundant and the participant did not memorize the number of repetitions.
Distraction 2 was used as a movement distraction to simulate the effects of a driver having one hand on the wheel while driving vehicle, mainly focusing on the effects of texting while driving . 4 unique tests were set up in order to emulate the distraction. The participant was first asked to flip pages of a text book and count the number of pages flipped, second to text their first name inside the desk, third to pick out the lead holder that was mixed with numerous school supplies inside the desk, and finally write their last name while catching a ruler or playing the sleep sheep game. The participant was instructed not to use their vision to complete any of the tasks, and use their non-dominant hand, in order to focus on movement and one-handed distractions. The participant was also told to use their dominant hand in order to simulate proper driving conditions and eliminating additional factors that could effect reaction time. The type of test given to the participant were changed in order to eliminate repetition, but still focusing on movement and one-handed distractions.
Analysis of Distractions
Through analysis of the data, a clear trend was formed , the movement distractions (Distraction 2) showed the greatest mean reaction time with , while auditory distractions showed showed the second greatest mean reaction time. As expected undistracted showed the the lowest mean reaction time, and these trends were seen in both the ruler drop and sleep sheep experiment. The mean reaction time for all 20 subjects for distraction 2 was 0.3335 seconds, while distraction 1 had a mean reaction time of 0.3007, and undistracted had a mean distraction time of 0.2443. When comparing the two distractions to the undistracted test, distraction 2 showed the greatest increase of 0.0892 second or a 36.5% increase. Distraction 1 showed a increase of 0.0564 seconds or a 23.1% increase. As predicted the movement distractions had the greatest increase in reaction time, while auditory distraction did show increase in reaction time, it did not show as great of an increase as the movement distractions did. Also comparing the two experiments the data showed that the sleep sheep experiment had the greatest total mean reaction time with 0.3693 seconds, while the ruler drop had a total mean of 0.2163 seconds, which means that there is a 0.153 second difference or a 70.7% increase from the sleep sheep to the ruler drop, which is a very significant difference.
Analysis of Other Factors:
The first other factor was the sleep sheep experiment compared to the ruler drop experiment. The trend in the data shows that the sleep sheep experiment had a greater mean reaction times then the ruler drop experiment. For sleep sheep, the experiment had a mean reaction time of 0.3693 seconds were the ruler drop had a mean reaction time of 0.2163 second, which is a significant difference between the two experiments.
The second other factor involved in the experiment include male versus female. The trends in the data showed that males generally had lower reaction times but had a greater percent change compared to the females. For undistracted male participants had a mean reaction time of 0.176 seconds in the ruler drop and 0.3022 for the sleep sheep. Compared to female mean reaction time, which were 0.181 seconds for the ruler drop and 0.3178 seconds, they had a significant increases from the male times. For distraction 1, male participants had a mean reaction time of 0.220 seconds for the ruler drop and, 0.3751 seconds for the sleep sheep. For the same distraction female participants had a mean reaction time of 0.225 seconds for the ruler drop and 0.3826 seconds for sleep sheep, and while the trend continued in which females had a greater reaction time, the times are much closer. Lastly for distraction 2 males had mean reaction times of 0.246 seconds for the ruler drop and 0.4353 seconds for sleep sheep. Females had a mean reaction time of 0.250 seconds for the ruler drop and 0.4026 for sleep sheep, the trend in the data continues for the ruler drop experiment but is broken in the sleep sheep experiment. Although the trend does not fully continue, in general males had a lower reaction time then females, but the reaction times seemed to get closer together. Although males had lower reaction times, the percent change from undistracted to distraction 1 and distraction 2 were greater then those of the females. From undistracted to distraction 1 males had a percent change of 25% for the ruler drop and 24.15% for the sleep sheep experiment, while females had a percent change of 24.31% for the ruler drop and 20.39% for the sleep sheep. The data shows that females in both ruler drop and sleep sheep had a lower percent change then the males did the trend continues for undistracted to distraction 2. For males they had a 39.77% change for the ruler drop and 44.06% change for sleep sheep, while females had 39.68% change for ruler drop and 26.68% change for sleep sheep. As a result Males generally had faster reaction time (except for distraction 2 in the sleep sheep experiment), but a higher percent change between each distraction compared to females.
Theory of Distractions:
As expected undistracted showed the lowest reaction time, and this is because the user had complete focus on the task, rather than multitasking. With no distractions the participant was able to have their brain completely focus task whether it was catching the ruler or clicking a mouse for sleep sheep. Once the distractions were introduced into the experiment there were noticeable increases in reaction time which was not a surprise. The first distraction introduced to the participant was auditory distractions and it showed an increase from undistracted reaction times. The reasoning behind the results are simple, the participants brain were trying to process more then one action at once, and this was adding to the cognitive load on the brain. When listening to music or conversing with others the brain send signals to temporal lobe, were the auditory cortex is located, and this is were the auditory inputs are processed. As the participant was trying to listen to the music while wither catching a ruler or clicking a mouse, there was decreased neural activity in the parietal lobe, which is used to complete the ruler drop and the sleep sheep experiment. As a result with lower neural activity in the parietal lobe this resulted in a increase in reaction time, but the increase were not a noticeable as they were in distraction 2. Now distraction 2 involved movement, and movement distractions showed significant increase in reaction times, and this is because the participants brain had to process numerous actions, further increasing the cognitive load on the brain. The participant had to either text, write their name, find the object, or count the number of text book pages that were flipped without looking at the task given to them, while trying to either catch a ruler or click a mouse. The significant increase is mainly due to the fact that the brain was sending many signals, and since there were so many signals sent the, each action potential sent became weaker and as a result greater reaction times. Another reason the participant had trouble with this task is that the participant was not able to look at the distraction handed to them, and so the participant had to visualize the task in order to complete the task and so there were visual elements tied into the trial as well. It can be concluded that movement distraction showed the greatest increase to reaction times, followed by auditory distractions, and finally undistracted.
Another issue focused on by this lab was male reaction times versus female reaction times. The results showed that males had the better reaction time when compared to females, and this can be explained by evolution. Males in the past tended to be hunters and the fighters and therefore were the more primitive then the females, who mainly stayed at home caring for the household. As a result selective pressure developed faster reaction times for males rather then females. This is mainly the reason males generally have better reaction times then females do.
The final issue explored by this lab was the ruler drop experiment versus the sleep sheep experiment. The data showed that sleep sheep showed a greater reaction times when compared to the ruler drop experiment. The simple explanation for this is that the ruler drop experiment required the participant to focus on catching the ruler in a 10 second time frame, but the sleep sheep experiment had the participant focusing at a greater range between 20 seconds to 30 seconds, as a result the distraction took more of a toll on the brain in the sleep sheep experiment then it did in the ruler drop experiment. Therefore the increased reaction time in the sleep sheep experiment is because of its extended period of time when compared to the ruler drop experiment.
Errors for Improvement:
The first error experienced in the lab was that the participants were instructed to use a Blackberry for texting while trying to catch the ruler or click the mouse. As a result people who did this experiment may have had an unfair advantage, if they were used to the Blackberry keypad. Were as if the participant was not used to the keypad it would make it especially more difficult for the participant to try to complete the task. As an improvement, the participants should be asked to bring their phone of choice to the experiment, to eliminate the unfair advantage Blackberry users may have.
The second error in the lab was the way the two partners dropped the ruler, since the lab partners dropped the ruler in a different way. This could have resulted in different velocity of which the ruler went down at, and give the participants a unfair advantage. A improvement to this error would be to have the one partner drop the ruler to keep the experiment consistent and eliminate any unfair advantages in the experiment.
Another error in this lab was that the participants had different cup shaped hands when preforming the lab. If a participant had a tighter cup shaped hand, catching the ruler would have been easier for the participant, compared to a participant who had a wider cup shaped hand. In order to improve this error, a cup should have been placed in each participants hand and slowly taken out of their hand before having the ruler dropped, as a result every participants hand would have had the same dimensions eliminating any unfair advantage.
The fourth error in the lab was the different environments experienced by the participants. While the majority of the tests were done in biology class room, some where done in the library. With the environment of the test changed for some participants there could have been extra external factors that could have effected the participant in completing the experiment, as a result posing a unfair advantage to those who did the experiment inside the library. To improve this error the experiment should have been done in the biology classroom for each and every participant that partook in the experiment, therefore there would be no extra external factors that could have effected the participant.
Te final error in this lab is the type of meter stick used. In the experiment, some participants used a plastic meter stick were others used a wooden meter stick. Some of the intervals on the plastic meter stick were not the same as they were on the wooden meter stick. Also the using the plastic meter stick over the wooden meter stick could have effected the results collected. As an improvement to the error the plastic meter stick should have been kept constant in order to get fair readings for everyone, and that other participants did not have advantages over the other participants, making the experiment more consistent and fair.
Appendix:
Works Cited
Anderson, Ellen . "The effects of Audio on Reaction time." University of Wisconsin . N.p., n.d. Web. 16 Dec. 2013. .
- The effects of auditory distractions on Reaction time.-The effects of Audio on the brain
"Cell Phone Distracted Driving Research & Statistics | National Safety Council." Cell Phone Distracted Driving Research & Statistics | National Safety Council. N.p., n.d. Web. 18 Dec. 2013. .
- Distracted Driving Statistics
"Reaction Time Differences in Men and Women." SpeedEndurancecom. N.p., n.d. Web. 20 Dec. 2013. .
- Why men have faster reaction times then women do
"Texting While Driving - More Dangerous Than Drinking or Smoking Cannabis." cellular-news. N.p., n.d. Web. 20 Dec. 2013. .
- The effects of texting and driving on the brain
"The Anatomy of the Brain." About.com Psychology. N.p., n.d. Web. 20 Dec. 2013. . - Understanding the the lobes of the brain and their effects on the human body
Purpose: The purpose of this laboratory is to calculate your reaction times and design a procedure to evaluate the effect of reasonable distraction on reaction times.
Introduction:
Distractions are a part of everyday life, but they can become fatal while driving a car. A distraction can be defined as a something that renders a person incapable of behaving or reacting in a normal matter. Such distractions include the use of a cell phone, talking to other people, and listening to music. The National Safety Council and the American Automobile Association estimate that 23% of all car accidents are linked to distracted driving, that’s an estimated 1.3 million car crashes each year …show more content…
related to distracted driving. According to the same statistic of those car crashes, 3331 people died and 387,000 people were seriously injured. Although the cell phone seems to be the number one cause of distracted driving due to its world spread usage, but to fully understand distracted driving testing the effects of listening to music and conversing with other people will be needed. These factors will be tested through immediate reaction time, in order to simulate brake responses while driving a car. Contrary to popular belief braking response is a complex reaction which involves mental processing time, movement time, and vehicle response time. Movement time refers to the required time muscles respond to the action potential sent from the brain, mental processing refers to perception, situational awareness, and sensation. Finally vehicle response time refers to the time it takes the vehicle to respond to the brake signal given by the operator to stop the vehicle . This will be tested through a series of experiments by measuring the time it will take the participant to react to the action while being distracted, and the results will likely show that with the distractions that reaction time will increase.
The first factor that is being tested in this experiment is how music effects reaction time. Since music is involved with passive listening, this will effect the auditory cortex located at the upper side of the temporal lobe which processes auditory inputs. With more stimulation in the auditory cortex this will result in decrease in neural activity in the parietal lobe which is needed to complete driving tasks. As a result reaction time is increased, and therefore increased probability for an accident while driving.
The second factor that will be tested is how texting effects response time. Texting and driving accounts for 30% of all distracted driving incidents and increases the probability of a car collision by 400% according to the National Safety Council. Unlike listening to music, texting will require the driver to only have on hand on the wheel, while the other preforms the task. This will be emulated in this lab by having the participants preforming a task in one hand while the other preforms another in order to mirror a situation were a driver would be texting while driving.
Materials:
Meter Stick
Text Book
Laptop
Desktop Computer
Headphones
2 Desks
Internet access
Mouse
Blackberry
Chair
Eraser
20 Male participants
20 Female participant
Lead holder
2 thirty cm rulers
2 pencils
Miniature stapler
Paper
Pen
Procedure:
Meter Stick Drop
1. Create a 10 second heart beat sound effect with thunder storm sound effect in the background.
2. Repeat step one 3 times except create one owl sound effect, a metronome sound effect, and lastly a water dripping sound effect, all having a thunder sound effect in the background.
3. Place 2 pencils, 2 thirty cm rulers, a eraser, and a lead holder under the desk.
4. Have a another desk placed opposite of the other desk with a text book, paper and pen laid on top of it
5. Instruct the participant to sit on the chair between the two desks having the dominant arm rest on the desk with an empty top and their hand hanging over the opposite side of the desk.
6. Instruct the participant to make cup their hand.
7. Hold the meter stick at the 30 cm end and place the 0 cm end of the meter stick in between the pointer finger and thumb of the participant.
8. Drop the ruler randomly straight down, between 0 to 10 seconds.
9. Once the participant has caught the ruler, record the measurement along the top of the thumb.
10. Repeat steps 5 – 9, and have the participant wear the headphones, and listen and count the number of heart beat sounds there are in the sound effect.
11. Repeat step 14 three times, once counting the owl sound effect, the second counting the metronome sound effect and finally counting the water drips.
12. Repeat steps 5 – 9, and have the participant text their first name on the blackberry with their non-dominant hand
13. Repeat steps 5 – 9, and have the participant use their non-dominant hand to flip pages from the text book and count them.
14. Repeat steps 5 – 9, and have the participant write their last name with their non dominant hand on the piece of paper.
15. Repeat steps 5 – 9, and have the participant with their non-dominant hand pick out the lead holder from inside the desk.
16. Complete steps 5-9, 10 - 11, and 12 - 15 in the following order:
D1
UD
D2
UD
D2
D1
D2
UD
D1
UD
D2
D1
Steps 5 – 9 = UD (Undistracted) ; steps 10 – 11= D1 (Distraction #1) ; steps 12 – 15 = D2 (Distraction #2)
17. Repeat steps 3 – 16 19 more times, making sure that there are 10 males and 10 females participants tested..
18. Clean up all materials.
Sleep Sheep
1. Create a 10 minuet heart beat sound effect with thunder storm sound effect in the background.
2. Have a desk with a laptop laid on top of it.
3. Turn on the laptop and access the internet browser.
4. In the address bar type http://www.bbc.co.uk/science/humanbody/sleep/sheep/ to access the sleep sheep program.
5. Have a another desk placed opposite of the other desk with paper and pen laid on top of it.
6. Seat the participant in front of the laptop.
7. The participant will play the sleep sheep game undistracted.
8. Record the time mean given by the game.
9. The participant will then play the sleep sheep game, but will write their name over and over again until the game has been completed.
10. Record the mean given by the game.
11. The participant will then put on the headphones, and listen and count the number of heart beats in the sound effect.
12. Record the time mean given by the game.
13. Repeat steps 6 – 11 19 more times, making sure that there are 10 males and 10 females participants tested.
Note: Redo any tests where the sheep has been missed and 3.0 seconds is assigned
14. Clean up all materials.
Observations:
(Refer to appendix for original data)
The Effect of Auditory and Movement Distractions on Mean Reaction Time on Females with Ruler Drop Experiment (Table #1)
Participant
Undistracted
Distraction #1
Distraction #2
Mean Length of Drop (cm)
Time of Length Drop (Seconds)
Mean Length of Drop (cm)
Time of Length Drop (Seconds)
Mean Length of Drop (cm)
Time of Length Drop (Seconds)
1
17.00
0.186
21.50
0.209
26.00
0.230
2
16.00
0.181
21.75
0.211
23.00
0.217
3
16.50
0.183
28.50
0.241
30.50
0.249
4
13.50
0.166
25.25
0.227
31.00
0.252
5
19.50
0.199
23.25
0.218
38.00
0.278
6
23.00
0.163
29.50
0.245
35.50
0.269
7
15.50
0.178
24.50
0.224
37.25
0.276
8
18.25
0.193
26.75
0.234
31.25
0.253
9
16.50
0.183
27.50
0.237
31.25
0.253
10
16.00
0.181
21.00
0.207
30.75
0.251
Total Mean
17.31
0.181
24.66
0.225
31.45
0.250
The Effect of Auditory and Movement Distractions on Mean Reaction Time on Males with Ruler Drop Experiment (Table #2)
Participant
Undistracted
Distraction #1
Distraction #2
Mean Length of Drop (cm)
Time of Length Drop (Seconds)
Mean Length of Drop (cm)
Time of Length Drop (Seconds)
Mean Length of Drop (cm)
Time of Length Drop (Seconds)
1
12.00
0.156
21.75
0.210
30.75
0.251
2
14.50
0.172
33.50
0.261
24.25
0.222
3
14.25
0.171
14.50
0.172
36.25
0.272
4
16.25
0.182
20.25
0.203
26.75
0.234
5
15.25
0.176
24.00
0.221
29.00
0.243
6
14.75
0.173
24.00
0.221
28.75
0.242
7
16.25
0.182
22.50
0.214
29.50
0.245
8
18.25
0.193
29.00
0.243
25.25
0.227
9
15.50
0.177
27.50
0.237
33.75
0.262
10
15.50
0.177
23.00
0.217
33.50
0.261
Total Mean
15.25
0.176
23.80
0.220
29.78
0.246
The Effect of Auditory and Movement Distractions on Percent Change of Reaction Time on Males vs.
Females with Ruler Drop Experiment (Table #3)
Percent Change (%)
Gender
Total Time Mean Undistracted – Total Time Mean Distraction #1(Auditory)
Total Time Mean Undistracted – Total Time Mean Distraction #2 (Movement)
Male
25.00
39.77
Female
24.31
39.68
The Effect of Auditory and Movement Distractions on Mean Reaction Time on Females with Sleep Sheep Experiment (Table #4)
Participant
Undistracted
Distracted #1
Distracted #2
Time
(Seconds)
Mean Time (Seconds)
Time
(Seconds)
Mean Time (Seconds)
Time
(Seconds)
Mean Time (Seconds)
1
0.3190
0.3178
0.3320
0.3826
0.3901
0.4026
2
0.3013
0.3792
0.4784
3
0.3325
0.3358
0.3979
4
0.2951
0.4015
0.4743
5
0.3267
0.4151
0.3916
6
0.3291
0.4013
0.3977
7
0.3141
0.4422
0.3980
8
0.3486
0.3674
0.2748
9
0.2801
0.2711
0.4102
10
0.2963
0.4501
0.4131
The Effect of Auditory and Movement Distractions on Mean Reaction Time on Males with Sleep Sheep Experiment (Table #5)
Participant
Undistracted
Distraction #1 (Auditory)
Distraction #2
(Movement)
Time
(Seconds)
Mean Time (Seconds)
Time
(Seconds)
Mean Time (Seconds)
Time
(Seconds)
Mean Time (Seconds)
1
0.2954
0.3022
0.3431
0.3751
0.3877
0.4353
2
0.3879
0.0000
0.3717
0.0000
0.4920
0.0000
3
0.2976
0.0000
0.4146
0.0000
0.5040
0.0000
4
0.2945
0.0000
0.3891
0.0000
0.3967
0.0000
5
0.3765
0.0000
0.2907
0.0000
0.4250
0.0000
6
0.3345
0.0000
0.3661
0.0000
0.4655
0.0000
7
0.2834
0.0000
0.3908
0.0000
0.3547
0.0000
8
0.3136
0.0000
0.3917
0.0000
0.5015
0.0000
9
0.2470
0.0000
0.3919
0.0000
0.4348
0.0000
10
0.1913
0.0000
0.4000
0.0000
0.3910
0.0000
The Effect of Auditory and Movement Distractions on Percent Change of Reaction Time on Males vs. Females with Sleep Sheep Experiment (Table #6)
Percent Change (%)
Gender
Total Time Mean Undistracted – Total Time Mean Distraction #1 (Auditory)
Total Time Mean Undistracted – Total Time Mean Distraction #2 (Movement)
Male
24.15
44.06
Female
20.39
26.68
Total Mean Reaction Times of Ruler Drop Experiment vs. Sleep Sheep Experiment (Table #7)
Type of Experiment
Mean Times (Seconds)
Total Mean Reaction Time (Seconds)
Undistracted
Distraction #1
Distraction #2
Ruler Drop
0.1785
0.2225
0.2480
0.2163
Sleep Sheep
0.3100
0.3789
0.4190
0.3693
Mean
0.2443
0.3007
0.3335
0.2928
Sample Calculations:
Mean Time= √(2*mean length of drop/980) - √(2*17cm/980cm) = 0.186 cm
Mean Length of Drop = UD1 + UD2 + UD3 + UD4/4 – 15cm + 20cm + 21cm + 12cm/4 = 17.0cm
Percent Change = [(Mean Distraction 2 - Mean Undistracted Time)/Mean Undistracted Time)] *100
- [(0.4535 – 0.3022)/0.3022)] *100 = 44.06%
Analysis:
Explanation of Value of Distraction
Distraction 1 was used as a auditory distraction to simulate the effects of listening to music and conversing on cell phone while driving a vehicle. This was mirrored in this experiment by instructing the participant to listen to the sound effect and count the number of repetitions in it while catching a ruler or playing the sleep sheep game. A special sound effect was included in the background in order to create the musical element to the experiment, making it more effective and realistic. Although listening to music and talking on a cellphone (as long as its hands free), while driving is still legal in all 10 provinces, they do have effects on reaction time. According to a survey run by News-Medical, teens were 20% more likely to get into a car accident while listening to music or conversing on a cellphone. The repeated sound effect was changed each trial to ensure that the test did not become redundant and the participant did not memorize the number of repetitions.
Distraction 2 was used as a movement distraction to simulate the effects of a driver having one hand on the wheel while driving vehicle, mainly focusing on the effects of texting while driving . 4 unique tests were set up in order to emulate the distraction. The participant was first asked to flip pages of a text book and count the number of pages flipped, second to text their first name inside the desk, third to pick out the lead holder that was mixed with numerous school supplies inside the desk, and finally write their last name while catching a ruler or playing the sleep sheep game. The participant was instructed not to use their vision to complete any of the tasks, and use their non-dominant hand, in order to focus on movement and one-handed distractions. The participant was also told to use their dominant hand in order to simulate proper driving conditions and eliminating additional factors that could effect reaction time. The type of test given to the participant were changed in order to eliminate repetition, but still focusing on movement and one-handed distractions.
Analysis of Distractions
Through analysis of the data, a clear trend was formed , the movement distractions (Distraction 2) showed the greatest mean reaction time with , while auditory distractions showed showed the second greatest mean reaction time. As expected undistracted showed the the lowest mean reaction time, and these trends were seen in both the ruler drop and sleep sheep experiment. The mean reaction time for all 20 subjects for distraction 2 was 0.3335 seconds, while distraction 1 had a mean reaction time of 0.3007, and undistracted had a mean distraction time of 0.2443. When comparing the two distractions to the undistracted test, distraction 2 showed the greatest increase of 0.0892 second or a 36.5% increase. Distraction 1 showed a increase of 0.0564 seconds or a 23.1% increase. As predicted the movement distractions had the greatest increase in reaction time, while auditory distraction did show increase in reaction time, it did not show as great of an increase as the movement distractions did. Also comparing the two experiments the data showed that the sleep sheep experiment had the greatest total mean reaction time with 0.3693 seconds, while the ruler drop had a total mean of 0.2163 seconds, which means that there is a 0.153 second difference or a 70.7% increase from the sleep sheep to the ruler drop, which is a very significant difference.
Analysis of Other Factors:
The first other factor was the sleep sheep experiment compared to the ruler drop experiment. The trend in the data shows that the sleep sheep experiment had a greater mean reaction times then the ruler drop experiment. For sleep sheep, the experiment had a mean reaction time of 0.3693 seconds were the ruler drop had a mean reaction time of 0.2163 second, which is a significant difference between the two experiments.
The second other factor involved in the experiment include male versus female. The trends in the data showed that males generally had lower reaction times but had a greater percent change compared to the females. For undistracted male participants had a mean reaction time of 0.176 seconds in the ruler drop and 0.3022 for the sleep sheep. Compared to female mean reaction time, which were 0.181 seconds for the ruler drop and 0.3178 seconds, they had a significant increases from the male times. For distraction 1, male participants had a mean reaction time of 0.220 seconds for the ruler drop and, 0.3751 seconds for the sleep sheep. For the same distraction female participants had a mean reaction time of 0.225 seconds for the ruler drop and 0.3826 seconds for sleep sheep, and while the trend continued in which females had a greater reaction time, the times are much closer. Lastly for distraction 2 males had mean reaction times of 0.246 seconds for the ruler drop and 0.4353 seconds for sleep sheep. Females had a mean reaction time of 0.250 seconds for the ruler drop and 0.4026 for sleep sheep, the trend in the data continues for the ruler drop experiment but is broken in the sleep sheep experiment. Although the trend does not fully continue, in general males had a lower reaction time then females, but the reaction times seemed to get closer together. Although males had lower reaction times, the percent change from undistracted to distraction 1 and distraction 2 were greater then those of the females. From undistracted to distraction 1 males had a percent change of 25% for the ruler drop and 24.15% for the sleep sheep experiment, while females had a percent change of 24.31% for the ruler drop and 20.39% for the sleep sheep. The data shows that females in both ruler drop and sleep sheep had a lower percent change then the males did the trend continues for undistracted to distraction 2. For males they had a 39.77% change for the ruler drop and 44.06% change for sleep sheep, while females had 39.68% change for ruler drop and 26.68% change for sleep sheep. As a result Males generally had faster reaction time (except for distraction 2 in the sleep sheep experiment), but a higher percent change between each distraction compared to females.
Theory of Distractions:
As expected undistracted showed the lowest reaction time, and this is because the user had complete focus on the task, rather than multitasking. With no distractions the participant was able to have their brain completely focus task whether it was catching the ruler or clicking a mouse for sleep sheep. Once the distractions were introduced into the experiment there were noticeable increases in reaction time which was not a surprise. The first distraction introduced to the participant was auditory distractions and it showed an increase from undistracted reaction times. The reasoning behind the results are simple, the participants brain were trying to process more then one action at once, and this was adding to the cognitive load on the brain. When listening to music or conversing with others the brain send signals to temporal lobe, were the auditory cortex is located, and this is were the auditory inputs are processed. As the participant was trying to listen to the music while wither catching a ruler or clicking a mouse, there was decreased neural activity in the parietal lobe, which is used to complete the ruler drop and the sleep sheep experiment. As a result with lower neural activity in the parietal lobe this resulted in a increase in reaction time, but the increase were not a noticeable as they were in distraction 2. Now distraction 2 involved movement, and movement distractions showed significant increase in reaction times, and this is because the participants brain had to process numerous actions, further increasing the cognitive load on the brain. The participant had to either text, write their name, find the object, or count the number of text book pages that were flipped without looking at the task given to them, while trying to either catch a ruler or click a mouse. The significant increase is mainly due to the fact that the brain was sending many signals, and since there were so many signals sent the, each action potential sent became weaker and as a result greater reaction times. Another reason the participant had trouble with this task is that the participant was not able to look at the distraction handed to them, and so the participant had to visualize the task in order to complete the task and so there were visual elements tied into the trial as well. It can be concluded that movement distraction showed the greatest increase to reaction times, followed by auditory distractions, and finally undistracted.
Another issue focused on by this lab was male reaction times versus female reaction times. The results showed that males had the better reaction time when compared to females, and this can be explained by evolution. Males in the past tended to be hunters and the fighters and therefore were the more primitive then the females, who mainly stayed at home caring for the household. As a result selective pressure developed faster reaction times for males rather then females. This is mainly the reason males generally have better reaction times then females do.
The final issue explored by this lab was the ruler drop experiment versus the sleep sheep experiment. The data showed that sleep sheep showed a greater reaction times when compared to the ruler drop experiment. The simple explanation for this is that the ruler drop experiment required the participant to focus on catching the ruler in a 10 second time frame, but the sleep sheep experiment had the participant focusing at a greater range between 20 seconds to 30 seconds, as a result the distraction took more of a toll on the brain in the sleep sheep experiment then it did in the ruler drop experiment. Therefore the increased reaction time in the sleep sheep experiment is because of its extended period of time when compared to the ruler drop experiment.
Errors for Improvement:
The first error experienced in the lab was that the participants were instructed to use a Blackberry for texting while trying to catch the ruler or click the mouse. As a result people who did this experiment may have had an unfair advantage, if they were used to the Blackberry keypad. Were as if the participant was not used to the keypad it would make it especially more difficult for the participant to try to complete the task. As an improvement, the participants should be asked to bring their phone of choice to the experiment, to eliminate the unfair advantage Blackberry users may have.
The second error in the lab was the way the two partners dropped the ruler, since the lab partners dropped the ruler in a different way. This could have resulted in different velocity of which the ruler went down at, and give the participants a unfair advantage. A improvement to this error would be to have the one partner drop the ruler to keep the experiment consistent and eliminate any unfair advantages in the experiment.
Another error in this lab was that the participants had different cup shaped hands when preforming the lab. If a participant had a tighter cup shaped hand, catching the ruler would have been easier for the participant, compared to a participant who had a wider cup shaped hand. In order to improve this error, a cup should have been placed in each participants hand and slowly taken out of their hand before having the ruler dropped, as a result every participants hand would have had the same dimensions eliminating any unfair advantage.
The fourth error in the lab was the different environments experienced by the participants. While the majority of the tests were done in biology class room, some where done in the library. With the environment of the test changed for some participants there could have been extra external factors that could have effected the participant in completing the experiment, as a result posing a unfair advantage to those who did the experiment inside the library. To improve this error the experiment should have been done in the biology classroom for each and every participant that partook in the experiment, therefore there would be no extra external factors that could have effected the participant.
Te final error in this lab is the type of meter stick used. In the experiment, some participants used a plastic meter stick were others used a wooden meter stick. Some of the intervals on the plastic meter stick were not the same as they were on the wooden meter stick. Also the using the plastic meter stick over the wooden meter stick could have effected the results collected. As an improvement to the error the plastic meter stick should have been kept constant in order to get fair readings for everyone, and that other participants did not have advantages over the other participants, making the experiment more consistent and fair.
Appendix:
Works Cited
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"Cell Phone Distracted Driving Research & Statistics | National Safety Council." Cell Phone Distracted Driving Research & Statistics | National Safety Council. N.p., n.d. Web. 18 Dec. 2013. .
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