What a good reaction time really is.
People react to a change on a screen in about a quarter of a second. What the average is, what a computer adds, and how to test yours in your browser.
By Suraj Kumar4 min read
Reaction time is how long it takes to respond to something you were waiting for. Most people answer a change on a screen in about a quarter of a second. Here is what the research says, and why the number a website shows you is always a little longer than you.
The average is about 230 milliseconds.
In a large lab study published in 2015, David Woods and his colleagues timed people pressing a mouse button when a shape appeared. The average was 231 ms as measured. Their own monitor and mouse added 17.8 ms, so people themselves took about 213 ms, with most people within about 28 ms of that.
Age slows reactions a little, about half a millisecond a year in that study. Sex and education made no difference.
Your middle try is the fair number.
One try can be lucky, and one can be slow because you blinked. The Reaction time test scores the median, the middle of your tries, so neither moves it. A press before the change is too soon and one under 100 ms is a guess; both are taken again.
Five tries give a quick score; ten or twenty a steadier one.
Your computer is part of every result.
Your mouse or keyboard takes time to send a press, often 10 to 60 ms, and your screen takes time to show a change. No web page can see or take that away. The result says how often your screen is drawn and how finely your browser reads its clock, so you know what you are comparing.
That is why a result on your computer is usually a little over the lab average, and why you should compare results only on the same device.
Other kinds of quick.
Reacting to a sound, choosing a side, start lights, hitting targets and clicking as fast as you can all test speed in other ways, and each has a page of its own.
Further reading
Topics: good reaction time · average reaction time · reaction time test · human reaction time · reaction speed · how fast are my reflexes
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