an experiment to investigate the effect of aging on reaction …...initially the experiment was to...

Katelyn Biggart Year 9 2015 Page �1

By Katelyn Biggart

Year 9 2015

BOP IT!An experiment to investigate the effect of

aging on reaction times.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

TABLE OF CONTENTS 2......................................................................................................

STATEMENT OF PROBLEM 3..............................................................................................

ABSTRACT 3.........................................................................................................................

INTRODUCTION 4................................................................................................................

Purpose of investigation: 4............................................................................................

Background Research: 4...............................................................................................

Experimental design: 5..................................................................................................

Hypothesis: 7.................................................................................................................

MATERIALS 8........................................................................................................................

METHOD 9............................................................................................................................

RESULTS 10..........................................................................................................................

DISCUSSION 14....................................................................................................................

CONCLUSION 25..................................................................................................................

REFERENCES 26.................................................................................................................


STATEMENT OF PROBLEM

There is a need to discover whether there is a correlation between increasing age and a

slowing of reaction times. This could be helpful as a diagnostic tool for age related

diseases.

ABSTRACT

This experiment was designed to test the hypothesis that ‘The older you are the less likely

you are able to quickly react to random instructions’. In order to test that hypothesis a

method was devised utilising the participant’s score on a children’s toy, the Bop It extreme

- white edition. This toy was chosen as it had five different instructions for action that could

be randomly asked for by the toy and a uniform colour scheme that wouldn’t confuse the

participant’s eyes.

Initially the experiment was to have tested from age 0 to age 99 in decade age range

brackets, but pre-testing eliminated the possibility of testing on anyone over 79, or younger

than 5 as they were unable to complete the task.

The results obtained showed quite clearly that there was a rapid increase in scores on the

Bop It game up till age 19 and then a slower decrease in scores over the following six

decades.

It was concluded that the original hypothesis needed amendment to take into account the

increase in reaction time from the very young ages up to the late teens.

Testing reaction times can be useful in the diagnosis of some diseases.


INTRODUCTION

Purpose of investigation:

The purpose of this investigation is to see whether increasing age has a slowing effect on

peoples reaction times.

Background Research:

What is already known about Reaction time?

Research by others has already found that a slower reaction time can be linked to early

death [McNamee, 2014]. The California Training Institute has referenced various studies

that show that sleep deprivation causing fatigue will slow a persons reaction times [Factors

affecting reaction times, 2015]. It has also been shown that reaction times can be used as

a medial diagnostic tool, scientists have found out that people who have dementia have

slower reaction times [Do reaction time measures enhance diagnosis of early stage

dementia of the alzheimer type, 2004]. Studies have also shown that boys have a faster

reaction time than girls[Male vs Female reaction time, 2014].

What have other scientists done?

Scientists use Mental Chronometry to understand Parkinson’s disease [Slowing of reaction

in Parkinson’s disease, 1999], AIDS and Alzheimer’s dementia. Mental Chronometry is the

measurement of response time in perceptual-motor tasks to infer the content, duration,

and temporal sequencing of cognitive operations. Scientists also use physical activity to

see if it affects the cognitive performance in Parkinson’s patients. Scientists also use

continuous reaction times for the diagnosis of MHE, Minimal Hepatic Encephalopathy,

which is intermittently present in up to two-thirds of patients with chronic liver disease

[Lauridsen et.al.2011]. Not only do scientists use reaction times for medical use but they

also use it for other things like the selection and training of elite athletes.


What factors might affect someones reaction time?

Reaction Time:

Is the speed of a person responding to a situation or stimuli.

Mental Chronometry:

Is the science of measuring and documenting a persons reaction times.

Experimental design:

Positive Control:

‘Part of an experiment the scientists will know there will be a positive outcome to show that

the experiment has succeeded’.

The positive control in this type of experiment is shown when the participant receives a

score from the Bop It.

Negative Control:

‘Part of an experiment the scientists will know there will be a negative outcome to show

that that experiment has failed’.

The negative control in this type of experiment is shown if the participant doesn't receive a

score.

Distraction Physical Fitness

Alcohol Fatigue

Personality Type Left or Right handed

Brain Injury Stimulant drug - Caffeine

Fasting Intelligence

Age Illness

Gender Practice / Error / Emotion (don’t like getting things wrong)


Random Selection:

‘A sample in which every element in the sample has an equal chance of being selected’.

This experiment attempts to remove bias and ensure a random selection of participants by

incorporating a wide cross section of the community as the base from which participants

were drawn.

Replication:

‘The process of repeating an experiment to collect more accurate results’.

In this experiment there are 10 replications per person in each of the age groups and ten

participants in each of the eight age groups. This ensures that for each age group there

are 100 samples from which to generate the average and therefore 800 samples for the

entire experiment.

Constants:

‘An experiment that doesn't change or vary’.

The constants in this experiment are, the participants use the same Bop It, participants

play the same game format on the Bop It, the number of practice games, the list of

possible instructions within the game, the number of recorded results per person, the

same environment to eliminate distractions and approximately the same time of day.

Independent Variables:

‘Variables in a scientific experiment that are changed’.

The independent variable in this experiment is the different age groups. This allows us to

group the results by age range bracket. Pre-testing was performed with a few participants

that lead to the revision of the high age limit from 99 down to 79 as nobody who pre-tested

over that age limit was able to complete the task.


Dependent Variables:

‘Variables in a science experiment that are being tested’.

The dependent variables in this experiment are the scores achieved in the Bop It game.

Hypothesis:

The older you are the less likely you are able to quickly react to random instructions.


MATERIALS

1 x Bop It.

1 x Data entry table per participant.

1 x Pen.

2 x Spare batteries for the Bop It.

10 x Participants from the different age brackets.

1 x Room temperature environment without any distractions.


Twist It Flick It

Spin It Pull It

Bop It

The Bop It Reaction Time Tester

METHOD

1. Prepare several tables for individual participants to record their test results. Table

should include space for the participants ‘name, age bracket, game 1 - game 10

scores’.

2. Make sure the setting of the Bop It is on solo mode and make sure the batteries are

fresh (change batteries every fifty games, or whenever the audio is too low to hear).

3. Ensure that the environment is controlled with minimal distraction, similar temperature

conditions and time of day to get an accurate result.

4. Ask the participant’s name and let them show you the age bracket they are in and ask

them if they have used a Bop It before.

5. Let the participant have two practice runs of the Bop It so they become familiar with

how it works.

6. Have the participant take ten turns of the game and record their score on the table

under the appropriate game number.

7. Repeat steps 2-6 for all the other participants being tested.


Sample Data Entry Sheet

RESULTS



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Score

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Bop It Score

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3 S

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4 S

core

Turn

5 S

core

Turn

6 S

core

Turn

7 S

core

Turn

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core

Turn

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10

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Percentage of Total Average Score Achieved by Each Age Range

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DISCUSSION

The data collected shows a clear trend related to the average Bop It scores for each age

group. It is immediately obvious that in the decade between age 9 and 19 there is an

extremely rapid increase in the score achieved in the Bop It game. It is also clear that this

increase is almost entirely reversed over the following three decades to age 49 and has

been almost completely eliminated in the three decades following that to age 79. From the

data expressed in the pie chart we can see that the 0-9 year age group score the same

percentage of the total average score over the 800 repetitions as the 70-79 year age group

(3%).

Looking at the results for the individual age groups it becomes apparent that within the 0-9

age group results while there were some high individual scores, participant 9 scored 10,

the average was reasonably low (4.4) but also consistent between participants with none

scoring an average of more than 6 or less than 3.4 (+-1.6 from the average).

The 10-19 year age group saw a marked improvement from the 0-9 year group in the size

of the score with the average for the group jumping up to 45.12 however the first two

participants in the group scored almost half of the group average while participants 5, 6

and 7 scored almost 50% higher than the average. With the exception of the first two

participants the others were within 20 points of each other in their scores.

The first two participants in the 20-29 age group also have obviously lower scores than

their cohort and the difference is even more marked and obvious on the graph than the

previous group. This could be due to the participants having a genuinely slower reaction

time than other participants in their age group, or it could be due to other variables outside

the scope of the experiment such as a hearing problem that would have rendered the test

more difficult to complete. We can see from the ‘Average Bop It Score by Age Range’

graph that the minimum average for the 20-29 year age group dips significantly lower than

you would expect and the second participants result accounts for this.


There is no obvious stand-out in the 30-39 year age group and all the results seem fairly

homogenous however we can see from the ‘Average Bop It Score by Age Range’ graph

that by this age group they are two thirds of the way back towards the final average in the

70-79 age group.

By 40-49 the average score is 11.02 and it remains around that level for the 50-59 year

age group as well. The average for the 50-59 year age group is possibly kept high by

participant 6 who scored an average of 4 points higher than the group average or 50%

better. Participant 6 was asked about the score and suggested it may have been because

she regularly played ‘brain exercise games’ and took yoga classes.

The 60-69 and 70-79 year age groups showed a slow decline down to the final average

score of 4.84 and the graphs of those age groups show a fairly constant average between

participants.

An observation to make here is that the test had little difficulty attracting participants as it

was based around playing with a toy to get the results and participants engaged with the

challenge of the toy to try and achieve or better their previous score.

It’s interesting to note that reaction time testing is used in many areas of the community

from predicting the success of elite athletes to being used as a diagnostic tool in the study

of medical conditions such as Parkinsons.

There is always room for improvement though and some things that could improve this

experiment may be to make the age ranges smaller to maximise the accuracy of the

results as there was a significant difference noticed in the ability of those between 5 and

10 who needed to sit to perform the task and the skyrocketing scores between the ages of

9 and 19. It would have perhaps benefited the test to break the age groups into 2 or 5 year

divisions rather than decades in order to see which ages had more rapid increases in

score


Future experiments might want to consider other factors rather than simply the age of

participants but also look at recording visual or auditory issues participants had in order to

account for those variables in the results.

Future experiments may also want to standardise on how the Bop It was held as the game

was played, various participants in this experiment held the Bop It in different ways and

this may have affected their scores. Some of the younger participants didn’t have the

strength to both hold and operate the toy and had help from a third party to hold it while

they operated it.


Some held it in one hand Some held it with two hands

Some had it held for them Some sat it on their lap

CONCLUSION

The experiment hypothesis states “The older you are the less likely you are able to quickly

react to random instructions”

In this experiment the score achieved by a participant was used as the yardstick to

measure whether the participant was able to rapidly react to random instructions. A higher

score indicated a more successful ‘turn’ of the game and therefore it could be inferred that

this meant the participant had a faster reaction time.

We can clearly see from the average scores of the various age groups in the ‘Average Bop

It Score by Age Range’ graph that the data does not entirely support the hypothesis. From

ages 0 to 19 the older the participant was the more likely they were to react quickly to the

random game instructions and therefore achieve a higher score. It was only in the groups

over 19 that the scores diminished, and therefore the less likely the participant was to be

able to quickly react to the instructions with increasing age.

Perhaps a more accurate hypothesis for the experiment would have been that “As you get

older you are more able to react quickly to random instructions until you reach a turning

point and your ability to react then decreases with increasing age.”


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an experiment to investigate the effect of aging on reaction …...initially the experiment was to...

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