Reaction time measurements

Abstract

Human automotive reaction-time study test measurements were carried out utilizing the facility of the Ontario Science Center, Don Mills, Ontario; Canada. The tests were carried out under simulated vehicle-driving conditions, in a mock-up that incorporated an automotive driver's seat, steering wheel, brake pedal and accelerator, utilizing background sounds typical of engine acceleration, deceleration and braking. Each subject's automotive reaction time was recorded (the average figure over a tentrial testing period), along with his sex, age, marital status, whether or not the subject had a driver's license, whether or not the subject had ever taken a course in driver's education, the number of years the subject had spent on the road, the number of moving traffic violations the subject had received, and his profession. After the entire sample of reaction-time testing data had been taken, the human automotive reaction times and individual driver characteristic variables were broken down, integrated, charted, and statistically evaluated for comparative analysis. Utilizing parameters of limitation and deletion, from approximately four hundred cases tested, two hundred and fifteen individual reaction times and driver characteristics were culled as considered representative of true testing performance. The average or mean human automotive reaction time for the population as a whole ( x ) was calculated to be 0.627 second ( n = 215), with a standard deviation (S.D.) of 0.0695 second. The human automotive reaction times and individual driver characteristic variables were further segregated into overall classifications, charted in tables, and the mean or average value reaction times were calculated for basic variable groupings. Breakdown and segregation of the data into various other classifications for analyses is facile and encouraged. Numerous relationships contained in data chartings between tables, groupings, cells, sub-cells, or combination of cells, may be observed, derived, and extracted. For rank ordering the reaction times of different subjects, classes, groupings, or sub-groupings and their characteristics, the data charting tables may also prove to be most relevant in providing a comparative basis from which observations, insights and conclusions may be drawn.