Conclusion
According to my experiments, the reaction time of females increased as age also increased, confirming part of my hypothesis, however, reaction time of males decreased as age increased, disproving the other part of my hypothesis.
Therefore, female reaction times increase with age and male reaction time decreases with age.
Therefore, female reaction times increase with age and male reaction time decreases with age.
Discussion
![Picture](/uploads/5/7/7/9/57799467/179585063.jpg?322)
The results of my experiments seemed extremely disarrayed, showing barely any trend or pattern in both the male and female drop tests in terms of distance. The only pattern that appeared was that the reaction time improved across both genders as the drops progressed. Apart from that, results were varied widely. However, to ensure reliability and validity, the results of each age group and gender were averaged and graphed. These results revealed that there was an approximate 9% increase of reaction in females and a 4% decrease of reaction time in males as age increased for both genders.
Difficulties in performing this experiment included finding people within the older age groups that had been proposed to do the experiment on. Asking friends for their parents overcame this. Some of the subjects tested were previously focused on something else such as electronic devices and this proved problematic because they could have been distracted and not focusing fully on catching the ruler as soon as possible. If the experiment were to repeat, an improvement would be to give more notice beforehand so they would be aware and prepared to catch the ruler to the best of their abilities. The results may have differed from what I predicted in my hypothesis other factors could have been at play. Some such are fatigue and stress, for example staying up late at snow trip, studying for HSC and work stress in general. Also, the aforementioned distractions on the subjects could also have affected the end result. Another factor would be that reaction time can be improved through practice and training, therefore every person has varying degrees of reactions.
Reaction time is important in daily life. For example, if a child jumps onto the road just as a car is driving by, reaction time determines how fast the driver can stop the car to avoid the child. Reaction time is also used in many sports, reacting to the gun at the start of a race or reacting to a ball to prevent a goal being scored. Reaction time is a vital part of our everyday lives and saves lives daily.
Difficulties in performing this experiment included finding people within the older age groups that had been proposed to do the experiment on. Asking friends for their parents overcame this. Some of the subjects tested were previously focused on something else such as electronic devices and this proved problematic because they could have been distracted and not focusing fully on catching the ruler as soon as possible. If the experiment were to repeat, an improvement would be to give more notice beforehand so they would be aware and prepared to catch the ruler to the best of their abilities. The results may have differed from what I predicted in my hypothesis other factors could have been at play. Some such are fatigue and stress, for example staying up late at snow trip, studying for HSC and work stress in general. Also, the aforementioned distractions on the subjects could also have affected the end result. Another factor would be that reaction time can be improved through practice and training, therefore every person has varying degrees of reactions.
Reaction time is important in daily life. For example, if a child jumps onto the road just as a car is driving by, reaction time determines how fast the driver can stop the car to avoid the child. Reaction time is also used in many sports, reacting to the gun at the start of a race or reacting to a ball to prevent a goal being scored. Reaction time is a vital part of our everyday lives and saves lives daily.