The Effect of Exercise on the Reaction Time of Sixth Grade Students
Researched by Ashley L. 2002-03	PURPOSE  HYPOTHESIS  EXPERIMENT DESIGN  MATERIALS  PROCEDURES  RESULTS  CONCLUSION  RESEARCH REPORT  BIBLIOGRAPHY  ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

The purpose of this experiment was to determine the effect of exercise on the reaction time of 6th graders.

I became interested in this idea because I have problems when I try to catch a ball on a moment’s notice, and I can rarely do it. I wondered if this was only true for me or if other people have a similar reaction to this type of situation. 

The information gained from this experiment could benefit coaches, athletes, or doctors. For example, if I gained solid proof that a person’s reflexes were usually slower after exercising, coaches would know that their teams would perform better in a game or competition, if they had not been exercising vigorously immediately before the event. 
 

My hypothesis was that a person’s reaction time would be faster after exercising. 

I based my hypothesis on findings made by Welford, Levitt, Gutin, Sjoberg, and Collardeu. These findings were made between 1971 and 2001and reported on an Internet site called "Literature review on Reaction Time." This is available at: http://biae.clemson.edu/bpc/bp/Lab/ 110/reaction.htp. It stated; "Exercise can affect reaction time. Welford (1980) found that physically fit subjects had faster reaction times, and both Levitt and Gutin (1971) and Sjoberg (1975) showed that subjects had the fastest reaction time when they were exercising sufficiently to produce a heart rate of 115 beats per minute. On the other hand, McMorris et al. (2001) found no post-exercise effect in runners, but did find that exercise improved reaction time during the exercise. They attributed this to increased arousal during the exercise."
 

The constants in this study were:
* The approximate age of the subjects
* The amount of time resting
* The type of exercise
* The intensity of exercise
* The temperature of the room during exercise and resting
* The instrument that I used to measure the reaction time of the subjects 

The manipulated variable was the amount of time that the test subjects exercised. 

The responding variable was the subjects’ reaction time. 

0To measure the responding variable I had each subject use a computer program called the reflex tester, which measures reaction time to the nearest .001 second.

1. Obtain 28 volunteers to act as subjects.
     2. Prepare the computer for testing reaction time.
3. Take one subject into the testing room.
4. Have the subject rest for three minutes.
5. While they rest, explain to the subject what is to be tested and what they must do.
6. Have the subject sit at a computer and, after I demonstrate how, take the reflex test.
( see picture below )
              A) Click "start" button.
              B) When color changes click "stop" button.
              C) Experimenter records time.
              D) Repeat steps 6a-6c nine additional times with the present subject. 
7. Have the subject exercise for three minutes using an aerobic step that is eight inches high. The subject exercises in rhythm with a metronome set on 108 beats per minute. Their foot pattern will be left, right, left, right. They will step up, up, down, down. This results in 27 full steps per minute.
8. Retest the subjects with the "Reflex Tester" ten times.
9. Have the subject return to class.
10. Repeat steps two through nine with each of the 27 other subjects.

The original purpose of this experiment was to determine the effect of exercise on the reaction time of 6th graders.

The results of the experiment were that the average reaction time after exercising was 0.646 seconds and the average reaction time after exercising was 0.606 seconds.
 

See my table and graph.
 

My hypothesis was that a person’s reaction time would be faster after exercising

The results indicate that this hypothesis should be accepted. 

Because of the results of this experiment, I wonder if I were to compare the reaction times of girls and boys, if they would be drastically different or relatively similar.  I unofficially calculated the average of all my boy subjects and all my girl subjects and the results of that seemed to show that boys might have faster reaction times.  It would be interesting to study further.

If I were to conduct this project again I would test more subjects, test an equal number of boys and girls, and try to use a more challenging way of measuring reaction time.
 
 

RESEARCH REPORT Introduction Humans need to exercise in order to stay fit and healthy. It is also important for humans to have good reflex reactions. This is because reflexes play an important part in everyday life, as well as emergency survival.  Reaction Time A reaction is a response to a stimulus. There are actually many different types of reflex reactions. A few of them are emotional stimuli reflexes and conditioned reflexes.  People have many reactions to emotional stimuli. A few of these are changes in breathing and blood pressure, which can be measured. These can be measured by using a lie detector. A person telling a lie usually has small emotional reactions. These small emotional reactions can be measured by a lie detector. A lie detector is a machine that has the ability to measure certain body reactions to emotional stimuli. A conditioned reflex works by association. For example, a dog’s mouth begins to water when the dog smells food. The Russian physiologist Ivan Pavlov showed that the flow of saliva-though originally an automatic reaction to the smell of food can become a conditioned reflex.  Pavlov rang a bell each time he brought food to the dog.  Eventually, the dog’s mouth began to water with the sound of the bell-even if no food was present.  The dog associated the sound of the bell with food just as it had associated the smell with the food.  Some other examples of reflex reactions are when a person touches a hot stove, the person will jerk away, when light is directed at a person’s eye, the pupil of the eye will retract and grow smaller, and, when a doctor strikes a person’s knee with a special hammer, the person’s leg will automatically kick. There are four steps to a reflex action.  These are: reception, conduction, transmission, and response.  The stimulation is received by receptors, or sensitive nerve endings.  Energy from the stimulus is changed into nerve impulses and conducted from the receptor into the central nervous system.  From there, nerve impulses are transmitted to motor nerves, which control muscle action.  The motor nerves conduct the impulses to muscles and glands throughout the body, causing them to respond or act.      Exercise "Exercise is an activity that requires strenuous biental, or physical effort.  Especially when performed to maintain or develop fitness."  There are mainly two types of exercise.  They are health related and performance related exercise. Health related fitness includes aerobic, power, flexibility of the spine, abdominal strength, body fat, cholesterol levels, and glucose tolerance.  Everyone must maintain good health related fitness in order to feel good and resist disease. Performance related fitness includes muscular strength, aerobic power, anaerobic power, anaerobic capacity, and flexibility. Physical fitness is the ability to meet the physical demands of daily life.  It enables people to perform well in sports and other activities.  It can be developed by having a balanced diet and exercising regularly.  A balanced diet has all of the nutrients that the body needs to remain healthy.  Health experts recommend at least 20 minutes of vigorous aerobic exercise three to five times per week in order for adults to develop and maintain aerobic power and to help control body fat, cholesterol and glucose tolerance.

BIBLIOGRAPHY Barf, Daniel S.   "Reflex Action,"  The World Book Encyclopedia, 1998. Lamb, David R.  "Physical Fitness,"   The World Book Encyclopedia, 1998. Stevens, Charles F. "The Nervous System,"   The World Book Encyclopedia, 1998. "Exercise," Literature Review on Reaction Time, November 20, 2002 llm,.          <http;//biae.clemson.edu/bpc/bp/lab/110/reaction .htp>

I would like to thank the following people; 
* My mother and father for supporting me throughout the course of this project.
* My wonderful and helpful science teacher, Mr. Newkirk.
* The ever-present assistant teacher, Mrs. Helms. 
* Each and every one of my test subjects. None of them complained at all while I was testing them.
* My wonderful siblings, Derek and Adrienne for always believing in me and looking up to me.
 
 
 

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