Does Age and Use of Video Games Affect Your Reaction Times?

Conclusion: Overall, the 25-35 age group did the best. The video gamers for the age group had the best results for the ruler drop experiment with their average dropping length being 14.3 centimeters. The video gamers in this age group did the best in Perfection with their average time being 12.01 seconds. From these results, I discovered that the 25-35 age group have the fastest reaction times and that video gamers tend to do better while not under pressure. In a whole, my experiment was pretty accurate. I could have made sure that no one was in the room while testing the subjects so there weren't any distractions. Also, I could have found better ways to test the subject's reaction times. Other than that, my experiment was accurate and overall a success.

Abstract:

Does Age and Use of Video Games Affect Reaction Time?

For my science fair experiment, I chose to test a very important key to sports and numerous other activities; reflexes. I chose to investigate this subject because I wanted to discover how age and the amount of technology or video games affect your reaction time. I hypothesized that the people with a lack of video games in the 10-15 age group would have the fastest reaction time. I predicted this because I believe that the youngest group would have the fastest reaction times, considering they don’t have jobs and can focus more on playing sports and being outside. Also, I predicted that the 10-15 age group with a lack of videogaming would have the fastest reaction time because in their free time during the day they are interacting with other people and participating in numerous activities.

In the first step for my reaction time experiment, I needed to test a total of 12 subjects. My experiment consisted of two different tests in all ; the ruler drop and the game perfection. I usually started out with the ruler drop. This testing process starts out with the test subject standing with their hand out. Then, I would place the meter stick at zero at the top of their hand. Without telling them when, I would quickly release the meter stick and they would try to catch it as quick as possible. After I accomplished this step three times with each of the test subjects, I would move on to perfection. Perfection is a game where someone must place small pieces into their corresponding places on the gameboard. The subjects needed to do this quickly, or the timer on the game would go off and the pieces would fly. I made sure that they had enough time on the clicking timer so that the pieces wouldn’t go everywhere and mess up their round. By leaving the timer on I caused most of them to panic which affected their reaction time to move. I timed them and repeated the experiment three times each. When each experiment was down with every test subject in each of the three age groups, I averaged out their data.

Each of the three age groups for my experiments contained two video gamers and two non-video gamers. The total average for all video gamers for the ruler drop testing strategy was 19.19 centimeters and the total average for video gamers on the testing strategy Perfection was 17.70 seconds. On the other hand, the total average for all non-video gamers for the ruler drop testing strategy was 24.5 centimeters and the total average for non-video gamers on the testing strategy Perfection was 16.23 seconds. I also found averages for individual age groups. The average ruler drop time for the 10-15 age group video gamers was 23.1 centimeters and their average Perfection time was 13.24 seconds. The average ruler drop time for the 10-15 age group non-video gamers was 29.3 centimeters and their average Perfection time was 16.09 seconds. Averages for the 25-35 age group video gamers was 14.3 centimeters and their average Perfection time was 16.19 seconds. On the flip side, the average ruler drop time for the 25-35 age group non-video gamers was 25.99 centimeters and the average Perfection time was 12.01 seconds. Lastly, the average ruler drop time for the 60-70 age group video gamers was 20.17 centimeters and the average Perfection time was 23.68 seconds. The average ruler drop time for the 60-70 age group non-video gamers was 18.17 centimeters and the average Perfection time was 20.59 seconds.

From this experiment, I learned that generally the 25-35 age group have the fastest reaction time because out of all three groups, their times were the lowest. Also, the video gamers of the 25-35 age group did the best in the ruler drop experiment while the 25-25 non-video gamers did the best with perfection. Their times and lengths compared to other groups were generally low with the 25-35 video gamers ruler drop being 14.3 centimeters and the 25-35 non-video gamers Perfection time being 12.01 seconds. I assume that this age group did the best because they are able to work, yet they are still young and can also participate in other activities. My hypothesis was incorrect because I hypothesized that the 10-15 age group non-video gamers would perform the best while the 25-35 age group video gamers performed the best for the ruler drop and the 25-35 age group non-video gamers did the best for Perfection. Overall, I believe my experiment was fairly accurate. I could have found better ways to test reaction times during this experiment. Also, the environment in which the subjects were being tested could have changed as well. While being tested, some subjects were being distracted by surrounding people. Other than that, I believe that my experiment was accurate and it was indeed a success.

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