What is the average reaction time?

When we talk about reaction time here, we mean the time between presenting a stimulus to a person till person responds to this stimulus with a motor response. You don’t notice, but your brain has to process a lot of things before the stimulus results in a response. The environment matters, the person needs to observe and identify the object where the stimulus is coming from, decide which action to take based on this observation and finally give a motor command to perform an action. The average reaction time for a visual stimulus is about 250 milliseconds. The average reaction time for an audio stimulus is about 170 miliseconds and for a touch stimulus 150 milliseconds.



Is the average reaction time influenced by age?

The average reaction time is indeed influenced by age. Research shows that cognitive speed is improving till the age of 24. After the age of 24 there will be a drop in cognitive speed of about 15% for every 15 years that pass. Researchers can give a very well estimate of your age by looking at your average reaction time in a brain test.   

Which other factors influence the average reaction time?

There are lots of other factors besides age influencing the average reaction time of a human being. When conducting a brain test arousal (state of attention) of the subject is very important. Other factors are gender (men have on average a faster reaction time than women), fatigue, distraction, practicing, physical fitness, breathing cycle, drugs, alcohol, intelligence, personality type and illness.

How can I test my average reaction time?

If you would like to know your average reaction time you can do a quick test here:
Reaction time test