How Fast Are You? Check Your Reaction Time with this Online Test

It seems my critics are right: I am a little slower than average.

Patrick Parker (of Mokuren Dojo) and I were discussing the feasibility of intelligent responses to physical attack. Patrick asked:

What exactly do you have to do to get the faster intelligence that Chris says we need? Well, really we can’t. From my understanding of the neuromuscular machine I don’t really think that you can make the brain/spine/muscle machine work faster than it already does. There is hardwired into us about a ¾ second delay (if not more) in the OODA loop.

A search for evidence supporting or refuting this unavoidable delay, led me to the Human Benchmark reaction time test.

Reaction time test

My test results were: 283ms for the first set, 260ms for the second set, and 221ms for the third set of clicks. With a little more practice, I could probably reach the statistical average measurement of 200 milliseconds.

This visual-motor game is not an good measure of self-defense skill—wherein you are encouraged to use all five senses, and especially to cheat—but it does highlight an important physical limitation.

What are your test results?

50 comments

  3. I keep coming back to this online tester you put up. Cool game.

    What would be really cool to see would be a similar speed tester that flashes a light and you have to press a button with your foot. That would be a better simulation of the reaction speed in a whole-body activity.

    Don’t they make kicking pads tht provide a light/sound stimulus and measure your reaction time to the point you strike the pad? Has anyone played with one of those things?

  4. Patrick:
    On the National Geographic special, “Fight Science,” they set up a rig with some hand and foot targets (one for each limb). Each pad had a light on it that would flash, and the practitioner (the only televised one was a Taekwondo champion from Australia) had to hit the specific target–reaction time was figured from there.

    Back to the post:
    I love games like this–except I get really twitchy and usually accidentally click a few times before the light changes. If we ignore my false clicks (it ought to penalize you for those…), I’m 200 after 5 tries (best was 174, but I think that was a fluke). On a side note, I tried using direct and peripheral vision, and found that my reaction times for peripheral vision was slightly better than a focused gaze–try it!

  5. 259.6

    I feel like it’s definitely something to play around with, but not something I’d stake my life on.

  8. man i only got 220.6 but i was’nt trying my hardest i had my music up 2 loud

  10. Here’s another interesting psych test that involves reaction time, but it is a more complex task, similar to the go/nogo test described on that wikipedia page. It doesn’t give you results on the reaction times, but it is interesting to watch yourself to see how long you get stuck when trying to recognize and judge something (the OO in OODA) before you can decide and act (press the right button).

    https://implicit.harvard.edu/implicit/demo/featuredtask.html

    It is also interesting in a political sense.

  11. Cool game!
    Wishing that there will lots of this… It’s really wonderful in a way that I’m stress free (for a while…)
    I’ll encourage my friends to check and try this out. It’s really adorable, I will try this all over again.

  12. hi boys
    i am a player of karate
    3rd dan black belt i m having some problem in my wrist when i punch please boys help me.one of my friend said me to use gripstik he said that it will give strength to my hands please you all see this website and tell tell is it good for wrist or not.

    http://www.gripstik.com

  13. Pingback: Total Mind and Body Fitness Blog Carnival 35 | FitBuff.com's Total Mind and Body Fitness Blog

  14. rahul there are a lot of things that can help your wrist get a stress ball and squezze or jsut roll your wrist around whileholding something tight there are a lot of things you can do but i reccomond seeing a doctor

  15. Pingback: Precognition and Psychic Martial Arts: A Scientific Perspective

  16. 215 ms: I used to think I had amazing reaction on account of me being an android. I have now discovered I have perfectly average reactions, demonstrating that my human emulation chip has been well specified.

  17. I hope you know that this doesn’t have anything to do with martial arts.
    Here there is one option(red turns green), one response to choose from(mouse click), and one response to do(click).
    In a real fight, there are many way you could be being hit, many option to indentify the attack and choose the correct block, and many technics to exceed.
    The only way to reduce your reaction time is to pratice.

  20. Nice game. My third try is 194. Thanks for the information n link

  21. my fastest try is 169. I think i have train my reflect harder

  22. Maybe my clicker takes a moment to depress…
    i took it once (5 clicks) and averaged 267.8,
    pretty slow I guess.

  23. Fun game. Like some of the suggestions, peripheral vision and a prepared pressing finger helped me get 187 once. I average just above 200 though.

    I hope I’m faster when the game punches me.

  24. i got 1 lucky guess by getting 29 =)
    really lucky guess rxn time.

  28. I played three rounds. two of the three around 90 to 100 my third one was 50 ms

  30. Really interesting, I decided that I liked the idea of having different types of reaction timing challenges that I put up my own site. This site will the use stats (like color differences) to determine which colors people react to the best. The data will probably take about two months to generate.

    www . reactiq . com

  34. well i could not play this stupid game but i played it before and my reaction is 0.0.5 so beat that suckerss. i am so quick and fast that no one can beat me. not even literally. shoot me with a bullet and i still live hahahahaha.
    do you get faster than me./ then i suicide but if you do please keep it to yourself..
    byee

  35. to snight btw we doesnt care about your score- 25seconds and .222 also i am single and im searching for a gay who would like to

  36. sorry i wasnt finish yet, i know my reaction is quit slow but my mum still loves me and isnt that what reaction is about.

  42. got 196 to 202 using left hand, but only managed 340 – 400 with my right. also mouse button and touchpad “click” gives diff, values. more things to think about.

  43. I averaged 215 the first round, 201 the second round and I’m on valium and painkillers. This is a test from green light to minimal physical movement. As a former knock out artist, I imagine a solid punch from green light to six inches thru a target two feet away would be around 300. A knock out lead jab (an elite punch both in speed and power -most advanced fighters do not have a knock out jab) or an uppercut.

  45. I got 112 as my average its quite horrible my brother got 52 as his average =(.

  46. i slept for 1hour and 20 minutes last night while now it is 14.14 aclock and my average after first 5 trails was 203 :S i dont understand how people are over my score. coz im seriously really tired. 😉 greeets

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