Exploring Relationship Between Reaction Time and Academic Achievement in Science Subjects of Middle Stage Students

Reaction Time (RT) denotes the time between stimulus presentation and voluntary response and is a significant measure of sensory-motor integration with cognitive processing rate of human brain. Hence, it is imperative to study the correlation between Reaction Time rate and academic performance of the students for identifying their speed of cognitive process. An investigation was carried out for one-to-one mapping between Reaction Time rate and general proficiency in science subject of Class VIII students from Odisha Adarsha Vidyalaya, Satrusola, Ganjam, Odisha. The main hypothesis of the present study is that there exist tenable and justifiable relationships between the Reaction Time of a student with his/her performance at school in science subject. Furthermore, it was hypothesized that gender differences with respect to Reaction Time also effect on academic performances. The above two hypotheses have been investigated on 38 students (13 boys and 25 girls) who were randomly sampled from the school. The data was gathered using a mixture of Reaction Time tests with an ICT-based tool ("Reaction Tester") and Term-I examination scores on science subject. The performance on science subject was determined from scores of two formative and a single summative test in science as per CBSE's Continuous and Comprehensive Evaluation (CCE) framework.
The mean Reaction Times for both boy and girl students were measured by using techniques of descriptive statistics. The findings revealed that boys had a lesser mean Reaction Time (589 milliseconds) than girls (607 milliseconds), which would establish the fact that the boys have faster cognitive processing rate and also better academic achievement. Further, Pearson's r-correlation coefficient between each pupil's Reaction Time (Y) and academic score (X) was also compared for entire sample of 38 students, and the magnitude of ‘r’ was found to be r = – 0.51. This finding suggests moderate negative correlation between Reaction Time and achievement score in science subject. The analysis also confirmed that correlating Reaction Time of each student with his/her score in achievement test in science subject may lead to a meaningful outcome.

Reaction Time, Academic Achievement, Middle Stage, Correlation coefficient and Science.

1. Adam, J. J., Paas, F. G. W. C., Buekers, M. J., Wuyts, I. J., Spijkers, W. A. C., & Wallmeyer, P. (1999). Gender differences in choice reaction time: Evidence for differential strategies. Ergonomics, 42(2), 327–335. https://doi.org/10.1080/001401399185685 [Google Scholar] [Crossref]

2. Batra, A., Vyas, S., Gupta, J., Gupta, K., & Hada, R. (2014). A comparative study between young and elderly Indian males on audio-visual reaction time. Indian Journal of Scientific Research and Technology, 2(1), 25–29. [Google Scholar] [Crossref]

3. Bloom, B. S. (1976). Human characteristics and school learning. McGraw-Hill. [Google Scholar] [Crossref]

4. Deary, I. J., Der, G., & Ford, G. (2001). Reaction times and intelligence differences: A population-based cohort study. Intelligence, 29(5), 389–399. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0160-2896(01)00007-6 [Google Scholar] [Crossref]

5. Der, G., & Deary, I. J. (2006). Age and sex differences in reaction time in adulthood: Results from the United Kingdom Health and Lifestyle Survey. Psychology and Aging, 21(1), 62–73. https://doi.org/10.1037/0882-7974.21.1.62 [Google Scholar] [Crossref]

6. Duckworth, A. L., & Seligman, M. E. P. (2006). Self-discipline gives girls the edge: Gender in self-discipline, grades, and achievement test scores. Journal of Educational Psychology, 98(1), 198–208. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-0663.98.1.198 [Google Scholar] [Crossref]

7. Else-Quest, N. M., Hyde, J. S., & Linn, M. C. (2010). Cross-national patterns of gender differences in mathematics and science achievement. Psychological Bulletin, 136(1), 103–127. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0018053 [Google Scholar] [Crossref]

8. Fit India Mission. (2019). Fit India movement guidelines. Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports, Government of India. [Google Scholar] [Crossref]

9. Hattie, J. (2009). Visible learning: A synthesis of over 800 meta-analyses relating to achievement. Routledge. [Google Scholar] [Crossref]

10. Hyde, J. S. (2005). The gender similarities hypothesis. American Psychologist, 60(6), 581–592. https://doi.org/10.1037/0003-066X.60.6.581 [Google Scholar] [Crossref]

11. Jain, A., Bansal, R., Kumar, A., & Singh, K. D. (2015). A comparative study of visual and auditory reaction times on the basis of gender and physical activity levels of medical first-year students. International Journal of Applied and Basic Medical Research, 5(2), 124–127. https://doi.org/10.4103/2229-516X.157168 [Google Scholar] [Crossref]

12. Jensen, A. R. (1987). Individual differences in the Hick paradigm. In P. A. Vernon (Ed.), Speed of information processing and intelligence (pp. 101–175). Ablex Publishing. [Google Scholar] [Crossref]

13. Jensen, A. R. (2006). Clocking the mind: Mental chronometry and individual differences. Elsevier. [Google Scholar] [Crossref]

14. Kail, R., & Salthouse, T. A. (1994). Processing speed as a mental capacity. Acta Psychologica, 86(2–3), 199–225. https://doi.org/10.1016/0001-6918(94)90003-5 Kosinski, R. J. (2013). A literature review on reaction time. Clemson University. [Google Scholar] [Crossref]

15. Kranzler, J. H. (2012). Mental chronometry. In N. M. Seel (Ed.), Encyclopedia of the sciences of learning. Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-1428-6_238 [Google Scholar] [Crossref]

16. National Council of Educational Research and Training. (2006). Physics: Textbook for Class XI (Part 1). NCERT. [Google Scholar] [Crossref]

17. National Education Policy. (2020). National education policy 2020. Ministry of Education, Government of India. [Google Scholar] [Crossref]

18. Patañjali. (1990). The yoga sūtras of Patañjali (S. Satchidananda, Trans.). Integral Yoga Publications. (Original work published ca. 2nd century BCE) [Google Scholar] [Crossref]

19. Posner, M. I. (1978). Chronometric explorations of mind. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. [Google Scholar] [Crossref]

20. Schmidt, R. A., & Lee, T. D. (2011). Motor control and learning: A behavioral emphasis (5th ed.). Human Kinetics. [Google Scholar] [Crossref]

21. Sheppard, L. D., & Vernon, P. A. (2008). Intelligence and reaction time: A review of the literature. Intelligence, 36(6), 537–552. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.intell.2007.11.001 [Google Scholar] [Crossref]

22. Silverman, I. (2006). Sex differences in simple visual reaction time: A historical meta-analysis (1934–1997). Perceptual and Motor Skills, 103(3), 717–733. https://doi.org/10.2466/pms.103.3.717-733Vivekananda, S. (1896). Raja yoga. F. A. Stokes. [Google Scholar] [Crossref]

23. Wikipedia contributors. (n.d.). Mental chronometry. Wikipedia. [Google Scholar] [Crossref]

24. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mental_chronometry [Google Scholar] [Crossref]

• Exploring the Moderating Role of Demographic Variables in the Relationship Between Scientific Curiosity and Creativity Among Secondary School Students
• Development of a CODE-Based Teaching Guide on the Central Dogma in Biochemistry: A Study in the Philippines
• Scaffolding Genetics Learning in Resource-Constrained Classrooms: Effects of Inquiry-Based Worksheets on Student Achievement
• Chronological Versus Biological Age: The Role of Diet and Healthy Lifestyle in Modulating Epigenetic Aging
• Impact of Artificial Intelligent-Tutor Individualized Learning on Students’ Cognitive Load Management in Integrated Science Education in Northeast Nigeria