This semester get your students started using iWorx by trying out this straight-forward and fun 
stimulus/response lab! Have your students learn the LabScribe software by “playing” and reacting to sounds and visual stimuli to see how fast their reaction time is, and which works better – their eyes or their ears!
Response/reaction time is generally defined as the length of time between the presentation of a sensory stimulus and the subsequent response. In other words, it is time required for a person to detect the presence of a stimulus and react to it in some way. It is a physical skill that can be closely related to human performance and reaction. It also represents a certain level of neuromuscular coordination in which the body, through different physical, chemical and mechanical processes, interprets visual or auditory stimuli and then has a subsequent reaction to those stimuli. Reaction time can be determined when an individual is asked to press the event marker as soon as a visual stimulus appears or a sound occurs.
There are various factors that affect the reaction time to a stimulus. Factors like intensity and duration of the stimulus, age and gender of the subject, effect of practice (such as piano lessons or sports practices) can affect the reaction time of an individual to a particular stimulus. As an example, there are relative differences between the reaction time to visual and auditory stimuli between genders. Male athletes tend to be faster than female athletes in the same sport in responding to different stimuli. Age of the subject also can have a large effect on response time; this is one of the reasons there is pressure to have older drivers retake the Road Test.
Have your students learn the ins and outs of the LabScribe program while learning about how well they respond to both visual and a variety of auditory stimuli. Group your students to do a miniature “in-class study” to determine if females or males, athletes or non-athletes, or other groupings are better at their response times than others. This fun and engaging experiment gets your students actively learning and participating in their A&P labs!
Physiology in Action
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