What's your reaction to this?

Here at BASH we have talked quite a lot about tweaking your system to maximize the speed of both your computer and your Internet connection so as to get an advantage when playing Call of Duty on line.

One thing we have not talked about is the last and probably most important interface to COD ... you!

You could be set up on a multi-threaded, multi-CPU computer with an overclocked video card and plugged into a T1 line, but if you are inattentive, tired, ill or simply untrained to respond to stimuli, you probably will find yourself constantly losing when you go up against a fresher opponent.

The best measure of this performance parameter is player Reaction Time.

What is Reaction Time?

It's the time it takes for the player to respond to a stimuli. In the case of COD, the stimuli is typically the sight of an opponent player, an immediate threat - or opportunity.

You can measure it here:

Why do some people have lower or higher Reaction Times than others?

Well it has to do with your own internal wiring.

Some of this wiring is set in your nervous system (hard-wired so to speak). Your nervous system is divided into two, with a central nervous system (brain and spinal cord) and a peripheral nervous system (all the nerves that deliver signals to the spinal cord). Both parts are at work here.

First, the nervous system must recognize a stimulus (an opponent with an MP44 for example), then neurons (cells in the nervous system) relay the message to the brain, muscles and other nerves.

Then, the peripheral nerves comes into play: the message travels from the brain to the spinal cord and is finally delivered to your hand. The motor neurons tell the muscles in your fingers to fire your weapon.

Clearly, the speed of the signals making their way through all these paths varies from individual to individual.

For about 120 years, it has been accepted that the average Reaction Time for a college age individual is about 190 ms (0.19 sec) if the stimuli is visual or 160 ms for a sound stimulus.




A learned skill?

The interesting thing about reaction time is that it apparently is a learned skill. Here is an article from Reuters news service, quoting the respected Acta Psychologica which reports that gamers are able scan their environment and acquire a target more quickly then their non-gaming peers.

"Video game players may spend a lot of time on the couch, but when they're ready to go out they can find their keys quicker than the rest of us, a study suggests. Researchers found that gamers who devote much of their free time to Grand Theft Auto and Super Mario may be able to scan their environment and spot the target of their search more quickly than non-gamers can. In experiments with college students who were either hard-core video game players or novices, the researchers found that players were quicker to detect target objects on a busy computer screen than their peers were." July '05

The good news is that we might be able to improve our reaction times!

In an article by R.J. Kosinski from Clemson University titled: A Literature Review on Reaction Time, Kosinski summarizes what affects Reaction Times:


Men vs. Women

Scientists have shown that in almost every age group, males have faster reaction times than females. In one study, the average response time to press a key in response to a light flashing "on" was 220 msec for males and a whopping 260 msec for females.

In response to sound, the difference was 190 msec (males) and 200 msec (females).

Tests done last year indicate that the gap is shrinking compared to tests done in the 70's. This may be due to the fact that more women are becoming involved in sports or gaming and they are training themselves to react faster.

The difference in the times is primarily accounted for by the lag between the presentation of the stimulus and the beginning of muscle contraction. Note that muscle contraction times were the same for males and females. Clearly men and women are wired differently.

Interestingly, dehydration caused a longer reaction time for women but a shorter reaction time in men!

Also, it was found that while men reacted faster, the women were more accurate.

Young vs. Old

Reaction time shortens from birth into the late 20s and then increases slowly until the 50s and 60s. It then gets much slower rapidly as the person gets into their 70s and beyond.


Intensity

The stronger the stimulus, the faster the reaction time! This is true for both sound and light stimuli.

Arousal

The amount of attention you are paying to what is going on will affect your reaction time. So will the amount of tension in your muscles. Reaction time is fastest with an intermediate level of arousal, and drops when you are either too relaxed or too tense.

Left vs. right hand.

It is known that the left and right side of the brain are specialized for different tasks. The left side is regarded as the part of the brain that specializes in logic and speech. The right side govern creativity and can deal with three dimensional spatial problems.

The right brain hemisphere controls the left hand, and the left hemisphere controls the right.

For this reason, scientists think that the left hand should be faster at reaction times involving spatial relationships (such as pointing at a target).

Tests have shown this to be correct.

Left-handed people were faster than right-handed people when the test involved the left hand, but there was no difference between the reaction times of the right and left handers when using the right hand. That is, left-handed people have an inherent reaction time advantage.

Right-handed people are faster with their right hand over their left, but left-handed people are equally fast with both hands.

Direct vs. Peripheral Vision

The fastest reaction time comes when a stimulus is seen by the cones in the eye (that is, when the person is looking right at the stimulus). If the stimulus is picked up by rods (around the edge of the eye), the reaction is slower.

Practice

Studies show that reaction times decrease with practice.

Fatigue

Reaction time gets slower when the subject is tired. Mental fatigue, especially sleepiness, has the greatest effect. Muscular fatigue does not increase reaction time.

Fasting

Eating or fasting does not affect reaction time.

Distraction

Studies show that distractions increase reaction time. Background noise lengthens reaction time by inhibiting parts of the cerebral cortex.

The reaction time to sound stimuli seems more susceptible to distraction than response to visual stimuli.

Warnings of Impending Stimuli

Reaction times are faster when the subject is warned that a stimulus will arrive soon. A great reason to use the HUD on your screen more often.

Alcohol

Tests have shown that females who drink one to six cans of beer did not suffer delayed reaction times the next morning, although they made more errors on a choice reaction time task.

Subjects who had drunk an impairing dose of alcohol reacted faster when they were warned that this was enough alcohol to slow their reaction time. Unwarned subjects who drank suffered more decreased reaction times. However, the warned subjects were also less inhibited and careful in their responses.

Even subjects who drank some nonalcoholic beverage and then were warned (falsely) about impairment by alcohol reacted faster than unwarned subjects who drank the same beverage.

Breathing Cycle

Reaction time is faster when the stimulus occurs when you breathe out than when you breathe in.

Personality Type

Extroverts have faster reaction times than introverts.

Exercise

Physically fit subjects had faster reaction times. Subjects had the fastest reaction times when they were exercising sufficiently to produce a heart rate of 115 beats per minute. The effect only seems to occur while you are exercising - not afterward.

Punishment and Stress

Shocking a subject when they react slowly shortens reaction time. For example, scientists have found that soldiers told that they were deploying to Iraq caused them to have shorter reaction times.

Stimulant Drugs

Caffeine has often been studied in connection with reaction time. Moderate doses of caffeine decreased the time it took subjects to find a target stimulus and to prepare a response for a complex reaction time task. The amount of caffeine in one cup of coffee reduces reaction time and increases the ability to resist distraction, and it does so within minutes after you drink it.

Intelligence

Among people of normal intelligence, there is a slight tendency for more intelligent people to have faster reaction times, but there is much variation between people of similar intelligence.

Conclusions:

Here is a summary of ways to improve your reaction time:

Tense your body - but not too much and keep up your heart-rate.

Ideally have sex while you are playing (who said gaming is a lonely hobby?) because you'll be aroused and your heart should be pounding faster - both decrease reaction times.

Apparently you can do drugs or drink to the point of impairment - but just make sure someone tells you that you're reaction times will suffer as this will apparently actually decrease your reaction time! (We're kidding about taking drugs, or drinking - remember kids, just say no).

Play dehydrated if you are a man or drink plenty of water if you're a woman.

Get plenty of rest.

Crank up the sound as you react faster to sound than what you see on the screen.

When you are getting ready to enter into a fire-fight, breathe out.