Eyes Versus Ears
Sixth grade student, Aaron P. Gallagher, put together this fantastic science fair project that explores whether people respond more quickly to visual or auditory stimuli. His hypothesis was that people would react faster to a tone versus a graphic. To test his theory, he utilized a computer program that would randomly beep or flash a red dot. Participants were instructed to hit the space bar as quickly as possible when presented with the tone or graphic and the speed with which they did this was recorded within a thousandth of a second. After 10 tests, the participants data was averaged to determine which stimulus resulted in the quickest response. A sampling of 102 people showed that the eyes have it!
If you have the skill to build your own test - by all means, do it! We did find these separated tests at Cognitive Fun, but you'll have to check them out to see if they'll work for you!
[NOTE: If you don't have the ability to utilize an online test or computer program, here's a project that will test the same variables, but does not require technology beyond a stop watch! It's from the Challenger Learning Center.]
