The Simplest Chronoscope: Group and Interindividual Differences in Visual Reaction Time

Abstract

The use of the simplest chronoscope (a falling meterstick) to measure visual reaction time (RT) in college students of both sexes is described. Tests of three hypotheses showed that (1) mean simple RT was significantly faster than long-standing population approximations and (2) a single-factor, repeated-measures, sequential-treatment analysis of variance design replicated Donders' long-standing findings that simple RT was significantly faster than choice RT; simple RT was significantly faster than discriminative RT; and that discriminative RT was significantly faster than choice RT. Also, (3) eta-squared effect size (eta2) computed on significant interindividual subject differences accounted for more variability than the eta2 effect size computed on significant differences between treatments. It was concluded that (1) the simplest chronoscope's methodology may have contributed to the significantly faster mean simple RT; (2) interindividual differences in RT should no longer be routinely ignored or eliminated; and (3) a repeated-measures analysis of variance design which tests for both group and interindividual differences can yield reaction time results of interest to both experimental and differential psychology.

Reliability and Criterion Validity of a Novel Clinical Test of Simple and Complex Reaction Time in Athletes

“…To allow RT assessment in a wide variety of circumstances, we developed a simple, computer-independent clinical measure of RT by standardizing the simple “ruler drop test” that has long been used in physics classrooms to teach students the relationships between distance, acceleration, and time for a free-falling body (Chudler, 2009). While based on the same general “ruler drop” paradigm, our methodology differs from that employed by Montare (2009). The original device and method for measuring simple clinical reaction time, or simple RT clin , has been previously described (Eckner, Whitacre, Kirsch, & Richardson, 2009).…”

Simplest Chronoscope III: Further Comparisons between Reaction Times Obtained by Meterstick versus Machine

“…To this end, the present study used the same experimental design employed in Montare (2009Montare ( , 2010 to measure Donders' (1868measure Donders' ( /1969) classical a-, b-, and c-reaction times, by both meterstick and machine. In the present study for both meterstick and machine, the a-reaction (simple reaction time) involved a single visual stimulus and a single response, with instructions to respond as quickly as possible to the stimulus onset.…”

The Simplest Chronoscope V

“…The theory of dual primary and secondary reaction time systems to be elaborated in the present paper has been developed from four previous papers on the simplest chronoscope (Montare, 2009, 2010, 2013, 2015). The primary focus of this fifth study was to present a theory of dual reaction time systems based upon new additional empirical evidence on the comparison of the simplest chronoscope as a measure of visual reaction time to standard machine methodologies commonly used at the present time.…”

“…In an adaptation of Pieron’s (1928) methodology as cited by Woodworth and Schlosberg (1954), Montare (2009, pp. 162–163) initially described the simplest chronoscope as a “… surprisingly accurate precision instrument for the measurement of reaction time to well beyond the nearest millisecond …” that “… may well be an even more accurate chronoscope than most personal computers which are at present commonly used as experimental equipment.” The simplest chronoscope is a falling meterstick held against a wall by the examiner that was used to obtain laboratory measurements of the distance that the meterstick dropped before its fall was arrested by participants.…”

“…Participants had been instructed to stand in front of the meterstick and arrest its downward movement with a thumb against the wall and thereby react as quickly as possible to its release by the examiner. The initial results showed that simple reaction time (SRT) obtained by use of the simplest chronoscope was significantly faster than long-established estimates of population parameters (Montare, 2009). In subsequent work (Montare, 2010, 2013, 2015), it was found that in every comparison of the meterstick method to the standard machine method, reaction times (RTs) obtained by meterstick in within-subject, repeated-measures designs were significantly faster and less variable than RTs obtained by machine for all three of Donders’ (1868/1969) classical RT prototypes: SRT, choice reaction time (CRT), and discriminative reaction time (DRT).…”