Reaction Time and Cognitive Functioning

Reaction Time and Cognitive Functioning

Introduction

Cognitive function and health is a concern associated with aging. It is a widely held belief that as age increases cognitive functioning declines. A common way to test cognitive function is to look at reaction time. Reaction time involves the brain in cognitive functioning when the brain sends a signal to the muscles in response to stimuli. The time needed for the brain to perceive and evaluate stimulus and then signal the muscles to react to that stimulus (reaction time) requires a cognitive process. Studying reaction time, or the amount of time required for giving appropriate responses to the perceived stimuli, helps to better recognize and understand the impact reaction time has on everyday life. A decline in reaction time, resulting in a loss of cognitive function can be detrimental to society. Loss of cognitive functioning can have an impact on one’s quality of life, as well as increasing cost to society. Reaction time is an important factor in terms of efficiency of organization and also in terms of health and safety at work, at home and while on the road (Lien, M., Ruthruff, E., & Kuhns, D., 2008).

The subject of reaction time and age has been widely studied by psychologists as it appears to play a central role in the effects of age on cognition (Hartley, A.A., 2013). While there are many medical conditions that can have an impact on cognitive health there appears to be non-medical cognitive decline as age advances as well (Shimoyama, I., Yoshida, A., Yugeta, T., Saeki, N., Hayashi, F., Yoshizaki, H., & Shimizu, R., 2012). Many studies have been conducted with participants in various stages of normal aging and these studies are of particular interest for researchers as there are many theories to why reaction time declines with age. While the general held belief is that reaction time slows with age there is evidence that suggests that there are marked individual differences in cognitive aging, with some people declining more over time than others (Deary, I.J., Allerhand, M., & Der, G., 2009). Some psychologists believe speed of information processing may be viewed as just one aspect of cognitive functioning that deteriorates along with a number of others with which it might share etiology while other psychologist view processing speed as a more fundamental construct, one that might explain some of the variance and age changes in other mental abilities (Deary, 2009).

In 2001 Ratcliff & McKoon conducted a study, which looked at reaction time using visual stimuli triggers to record participant’s reaction time response. This study found that older adults, while more accurate than younger adults had significantly slower reaction times to the trigger stimuli then younger adults (Ratcliff, 2001). Another single-task study conducted in 2012 with 108 volunteers aged from 21 to 90