Preview
Hypothesis: Does talking on a cell phone make driving more dangerous?
Purpose: To try and find out if a cell inhibits your reaction time.
Prediction: We predict that talking on a cell phone will make your reaction time slower.
Purpose: To try and find out if a cell inhibits your reaction time.
Prediction: We predict that talking on a cell phone will make your reaction time slower.
Review of Literature
R of L: In this experiment we are testing reaction time. Reaction time is the time that elapses between a sensory stimulus and the response to that stimulus. We study reaction time so that we know many factors that deal with everyday life. Reaction time is studied when dealing with athletes, automobiles, and many others. There are many factors that contribute to reaction time, they are age, gender, left or right hand, direct vs. peripheral vision, practice and errors, fatigue, fasting, distraction, warning, impairment by alcohol, breathing cycle, finger tremors, personality type, exercise, punishment, stimulant drugs, intelligence, learning disorders, brain injury, and illness (Robert J. Kosinski, Clemson University)Psychologists have three basic kinds of reaction time experiments. They are simple in which there is only one stimulus and one response(Luce, 1986; Welford, 1980). The second is recognition in which a stimulus should be responded to and others that get no response an example would be picture recognition. The third test being choice reaction this is when a person must give a response that corresponds to the stimulus, such as pressing a key that corresponds with a letter.Another factor to reaction time experiments are the type of experiment, the type of stimulus, and the intensity of the stimulus. One of the most tested factors to reaction time is arousal which in in other words is the state of attention (Welford, 1980; Broadbent, 1971; Freeman, 1933). You must consider all of these factors when doing your experiment. We must also consider the law of falling bodies assumes that no air is present to act on the objects being dropped. It says that, under the influence of gravity alone, all bodies fall with equal acceleration, regardless of size, mass, density, or horizontal velocity. Now that we have researched the background information behind the experiment we can better understand our results.
Materials/Procedure
Materials :For this experiment you will need a ruler, a computer, a cell phone,and test subjects.
Procedure: First you should gather all of your test subjects. Make sure your stop watch is accurate and that you are using a 30cm ruler. Also you will need to have paper or a computer to record your data. First start with making a table with all of your group members names including a colum of the number of trials and a colum telling wether the cell phone is being used or not. One person needs to hold the ruler while another tries to catch the ruler with there dominant hand while also trying to catch the ruler closest to the end. Make sure that you are holding the ruler with the 1cm mark going toward the ceiling.Repeat this at least 10 times per person and record your data. To do the next part of the experiment, you will need to have two cell phones. Now, do the same procedure as before but while talking on a cell phone. Make sure that the person you are on the phone with is asking you questions to keep you thinking you should be doing this while also trying to catch the ruler repeat this 10 more times and record your data. Once all of this is done get all your data together and make a graph or table. When your graph or table is done review your data and see if you notice any trends.
Procedure: First you should gather all of your test subjects. Make sure your stop watch is accurate and that you are using a 30cm ruler. Also you will need to have paper or a computer to record your data. First start with making a table with all of your group members names including a colum of the number of trials and a colum telling wether the cell phone is being used or not. One person needs to hold the ruler while another tries to catch the ruler with there dominant hand while also trying to catch the ruler closest to the end. Make sure that you are holding the ruler with the 1cm mark going toward the ceiling.Repeat this at least 10 times per person and record your data. To do the next part of the experiment, you will need to have two cell phones. Now, do the same procedure as before but while talking on a cell phone. Make sure that the person you are on the phone with is asking you questions to keep you thinking you should be doing this while also trying to catch the ruler repeat this 10 more times and record your data. Once all of this is done get all your data together and make a graph or table. When your graph or table is done review your data and see if you notice any trends.
Results/Conclusion
Results:
Conclusion: After reviewing our data we have come to the conclusion that while talking on a cell phone our reaction times were slower. This intern proving that talking on a cell phone does inhibit your abllity to react to something. Also we have shown that boys reactions times are faster then women's. Does your data show the same results as we got ? If not what was the difference?
Conclusion: After reviewing our data we have come to the conclusion that while talking on a cell phone our reaction times were slower. This intern proving that talking on a cell phone does inhibit your abllity to react to something. Also we have shown that boys reactions times are faster then women's. Does your data show the same results as we got ? If not what was the difference?
