Visual vs Auditory Reaction Time
On simple tests, people often react faster to sound than to light; a lights-out drill is a visual cue, so only compare times when the sense stays the same.
Visual and auditory simple reaction time
A simple reaction test asks for one response to one cue. In lab write-ups, people often answer a sound a little sooner than a light. Use the bands below as examples only. Each one is marked ESTIMATE. They are not a medical result, and they are not a time this site guarantees.
- Simple auditory reaction: ESTIMATE 140–160 ms. A common lab example for one sound and one response. It is not a medical result.
- Simple visual reaction: ESTIMATE 180–200 ms. A common lab example for one light and one response. A lights-out drill uses this kind of cue.
The gap in those examples is often a few tens of milliseconds. A slower screen, a speaker delay, or a different tap can move a score by as much as that gap. Read the ranges as a way to see the difference, not as a target.
Why a lights-out start is visual
This drill uses five red lights. They turn on one by one, hold through a short random wait, then go out together. You react when the lights go out. That cue is visual. The drill does not require a beep.
A time from this drill is a visual start time. It is not an auditory lab time, even when the number sits near a sound-test example. Line it up with other lights-out attempts, and keep the cue as the lights.
How to compare fairly
Compare two times only when the device matches, the sense of the cue matches, and the start was clean. A different phone, or a sound cue next to a lights-out cue, is a different test.
- Same device. Stay on one phone, mouse, or keyboard for the series you want to compare.
- Same sense. A sound cue and a lights-out cue do not belong in one comparison.
- Clean starts only. An early tap is a false start. Leave it out of the log.
How a start is timed is covered in how this tool measures a start. Why a different screen or touch delay can move the number is covered in device latency and reaction time.
Optional sound practice
If you want a separate attempt that can play a sound cue, open the optional sound cue page and keep that score apart from lights-out times.
Related
- What is a good reaction time — How to read a millisecond score without treating one attempt as a verdict.
- Reaction time training plan — A short week of lights-out drills on the visual cue.
- Guides — The rest of the ReactionF1 library.
