Reaction time is particularly important in combination with specificity of need. For example, a person in an occupation such as law enforcement, soldier, professional athlete, or other reactionary dependent positions of vital merit and efficacy application rely on the reactionary speed of their choice and response with literally life altering precision. For the layman, the scholar, or the adept at cognitive importance in freedom of choice and decision making, the idea of increased reaction speed seems to be significant in performance enhancement or personal development for proficient behaviors in response to potential stimuli. Memory and heuristic filters will indeed by an important influencer of our potential options when responding to known, or associated stimulus. However, the newly formed situational awareness or need for response may also be affected by the cognitive or emotional capacity and disposition of the individual and the context of importance, as applied through cognitive training for specificity of responding to varied stimuli.
There is a law of psychomotor reaction performance known as Hick’s Law (sometimes called the Hick’s-Hyman Law). First written in 1952 by William Hick, and Ray Hyman. The two psychologists were researching reaction time affected by presence of potential responses to a stimulus. The results determined that the more options a person must examine to respond with, can result in a greater delay of any potential response, or in fact eliminate any meaningful and timed correctly response at all. Determining that it is quite possible to have too many options for an immediate response. In turn the significance can lead to an improper, ineffective, or lack of response all together in many situations where a quick and effective response is vital, or at a minimum preferred. One must think of the old adage coined by Bruce Lee “I am more concerned about a man that has practiced one kick, ten thousand times, than I am about a man that has practiced 10,000 kicks, one time”
The Hick’s - Hyman Law should be reviewed by various individuals, of this there is no doubt in importance that may find reason for you individually. Specifically, the personal trainers, educators, or coaches of individuals involved in quick thinking reliant protocols will also need to understand the depths of this reactionary physical law in order to create significant relevance to the trade, craft, or need of their client base. As always, our blog post is the introduction of the issue and MadzookJoe suggests that you dive further into the construct for your own self-improved personal development concerns. The actual formula is as follows:
Reaction Time = Movement Time + Processing Speed · log2 (n),
(Variables = Processing Speed · log2 is the time taken to come to a decision. (n) is the number of available options for response. The movement time is the total time that is not involved with the actual process of the decision making - such as observation sensory ability i.e. site, sound, or touch limitations, enhancements, or variances, and physical functional capacity i.e. muscle size and mass, bone structure, balance or any other extended physical functionality involved in the kinesthetic movement(s) required).