Reaction Time Guides
What the research says about reflexes, and how to get an honest score from a reaction test.
- Reaction Time by Age: What the Research Shows
When do reflexes peak, and how fast do they slow down? What large studies of thousands of people found about reaction time from childhood to old age.
- What Affects Reaction Time? 8 Factors That Matter
Sleep, caffeine, alcohol, practice, age, even your screen: the eight factors that make your reaction time faster or slower, and what you can control.
- How Online Reaction Time Tests Work
Why your score changes between devices, why anything under 100 ms counts as a false start, and how a browser measures your reaction to the millisecond.
- Reaction Time and Driving: Why 250 ms Becomes 1.5 s
A quarter-second score on a reaction test becomes a second or more behind the wheel. Where the extra time goes, and what it costs in metres at 30 mph.
- Simple vs Choice Reaction Time, and Hick's Law
Why you react faster to one light than to two, what Hick's law says each extra option costs, and why this test deliberately uses a single target.
- Do Video Games Improve Reaction Time?
Gamers often react faster, but is it the games or the people who pick them? What the largest studies found, including the ones that disagree.
- Reaction Time in Sport: Why Reflexes Aren't Enough
A fastball reaches the plate in 0.4 seconds and sprinters are disqualified for reacting in under 0.1. How top athletes cope when reflexes alone are too slow.