title: A free, easy-to-use, computer-based simple and four-choice reaction time programme: the Deary-Liewald reaction time task.
abstract: Reaction time tasks are used widely in basic and applied psychology. There is a need for an easy-to-use, freely available programme that can run simple and choice reaction time tasks with no special software. We report the development of, and make available, the Deary-Liewald reaction time task. It is initially tested here on 150 participants, aged from 18 to 80, alongside another widely used reaction time device and tests of fluid and crystallised intelligence and processing speed. The new task's parameters perform as expected with respect to age and intelligence differences. The new task's parameters are reliable, and have very high correlations with the existing task. We also provide instructions for downloading and using the new reaction time programme, and we encourage other researchers to use it.
authors.affiliation: Centre for Cognitive Ageing and Cognitive Epidemiology, Department of Psychology, University of Edinburgh, 7 George Square, Edinburgh, EH8 9JZ Scotland, UK. I.Deary@ed.ac.uk
authors.forename: Ian J
authors.initials: IJ
authors.lastname: Deary
authors.forename: David
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Liewald
authors.forename: Jack
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Nissan
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000375:Aging / Q000523:psychology; D002755:Choice Behavior / Q000502:physiology*; D003201:Computers; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007360:Intelligence; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011597:Psychomotor Performance; D011930:Reaction Time / Q000502:physiology*; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012984:Software; D014888:Wechsler Scales; D055815:Young Adult